Lyrics by Chapman, J. Wilbur (John Wilber), 1859-1918
Music by Wesley, Charles, 1707-1788

Chapman, J. Wilbur (John Wilber), 1859-1918
Rv John Wilbur Chapman DD LLD USA 1859-1918. Born in Richmond, IN, he attended Quaker Day School and Methodist Sunday school. At age 17 he made a public declaration of his Christian faith and joined the Richmond Presbyterian Church. He received his seminary degree from Lane Theoloical Seminary, Cincinnati, OH. He was later awarded a Doctorate in Divinity from the College of Wooster, and an LL.D. from Heidelberg University. In 1882 he married Irene Steddon. They had a daughter. His wife died in 1886. In 1888 he married Agnes Pruyn Strain, and they had four children. His second wife died in 1907. In 1910 he married Mabel Cornelia Moulton. He held six pastorates in OH, IN, NY, PA, NY, NY before becoming an evangelist, generally traveling with gospel singer, Charles Alexander. In 1893 he preached with D. L. Moody. Billy Sunday was one of his disciples on the circuit. In 1895 he was appointed Corresponding Secretary of the Presbyterian General Assembly's Committeee on Evangelism, overseeing activities of 51 evangelists in 470 cities. He developed campaign tactics to maximize evangelical successes, trying them first in Pittsburgh, then Syracuse. With funding from philanthropist, John H. Converse, a wealthy Presbyterian, Chapman joined with Alexander to launch evangelical campaigns in 1907. He assembled 21 evangelistic teams after that to cover 42 sections of Philadelphia, preaching for several weeks. 8000 conversions resulted. They repeated this in NC. In 1909 they started a worldwide campaign in Vancouver, BC, and took in cities in Australia, the Phillipines, China, Korea, and Japan. Chapman also held religious summer conferences at Winona Lake, IN, Montreat, NC, and Long Island, NY. Mass evangelism was losing favor in 1910, so he was back holding large revivals with Alexander in 1912. He was also elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church General Assembly, and under so much stress, he developed gall stones. The surgery was too much, and he died two days later. He was also a prolific writer of religious works and hymn lyrics. 19 works.

John Perry
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Wesley, Charles, 1707-1788
Charles Wesley, the son of Samuel Wesley, was born at Epworth, Dec. 18, 1707. He was educated at Westminster School and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated M.A. In 1735, he took Orders and immediately proceeded with his brother John to Georgia, both being employed as missionaries of the S.P.G. He returned to England in 1736. For many years he engaged with his brother in preaching the Gospel. He died March 29, 1788. To Charles Wesley has been justly assigned the appellation of the "Bard of Methodism." His prominence in hymn writing may be judged from the fact that in the "Wesleyan Hymn Book," 623 of the 770 hymns were written by him; and he published more than thirty poetical works, written either by himself alone, or in conjunction with his brother. The number of his separate hymns is at least five thousand.

--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A., 1872.