Hymn: To God Be the Glory
Fanny Crosby wrote this hymn for children and titled it,
“Praise for Redemption.” It was published in an 1875 hymnal and long forgotten
until 1954. In that year, someone suggested the hymn to Cliff Barrows to be
used during the Billy Graham Greater London Crusade. It soon became a favorite
of the crusade and was used at the 1954 Nashville Crusade. This particular hymn
is different from other Crosby works in that it takes a more objective, distant
point of view rather than a subjective, personal nature.
Hymn: Spirit of the Living God
From The Presbyterian
Hymnal Companion: Both the text and the tune of this hymn were written by
Daniel Iverson. The story is told that George C. Stephans was conducting a
revival in Orlando, Florida in the spring of 1926. His friend Rev. Daniel
Iverson, a Presbyterian U.S. pastor from Lumberton, North Carolina, came and
spent a few days with him. Iverson was extremely moved by the sermon he heard
on the Holy Spirit and wrote the hymn that day, sharing it with his friends. E.
Powell Lee, Stephans’ music director, introduced the piece that night.
Hymn: Lord, I Want to Be a Christian
Melva Costen writes
about the background of this hymn, which has its origins as an African-American
spiritual: “New converts were required to ask permission to be admitted into
the community of faith, and spent time as catechumens in preparation for
questions which would admit them as candidates for baptism. The use of the
language “in-a my heart” from earlier publications not only reflects
traditional usage, but captures the intentionality of the creators of this
Spiritual. The depth of the longing to be like Jesus, to be more loving, to be
more holy, and thus be a Christian deep down within one’s total being is best
expressed “in-a my” rather than merely “in my” heart.
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