Fold me closer til I'm wholly lost in thee

Rodney "Gipsy" Smith, the son of gypsies whose mother died when he was five, was a very popular British evangelist in the 1800s who conducted evangelistic campaigns in the U.S. and Great Britain for over 70 years and became a household name. He was an early member of The Salvation Army, a contemporary of Fanny Crosby and an acquaintance of H. A. Ironside. He wrote the hymn, Jesus Revealed in Me:

Here, Lord, I bring my heart, 
My love, my strength, my will, 
Cleanse me in every part, 
With all Thy Spirit fill.

Oh, to reflect His grace,(His grace) 

Causing the world to see (to see)
Love that will glow, 
till others shall know Jesus, 
revealed in me.
Life is no longer mine, 
I yield it all to Thee;
Fill me, that I may shine, 
Until Thy face I see.
Triumphant peace is mine,
Now Jesus reigns with-in;
He giveth joy divine, 
And vict'ry over sin. 

******

Annie Sherwood Hawks, a 37-year-old Brooklyn, New York, housewife, wrote the words to the gospel hymn, I Need Thee Every Hour, one morning in 1872 while she was doing her housework, according to Helen Salem Rizk's 1964 book on hymn histories. "The following Sunday, she showed her simple poem to the pastor of her church, the Reverend Robert Lowry, minister at the Hanson Place Baptist Church, who himself was a composer as well as a preacher. Lowry took them home, set them to music, added a chorus of his own and a famous hymn was born."

The hymn reads:

1. I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
no tender voice like thine can peace afford.
Refrain:
I need thee, O I need thee;
every hour I need thee;
O bless me now, my Savior, I come to thee.

2. I need thee every hour; stay thou nearby;
temptations lose their power when thou art nigh.
(Refrain)

3. I need thee every hour, in joy or pain;
come quickly and abide, or life is vain.
(Refrain)

4. I need thee every hour; teach me thy will;
and thy rich promises in me fulfill.
(Refrain)

5. I need thee every hour, most Holy One;
O make me thine indeed, thou blessed Son.
(Refrain)

*****

Anne Murphy, a native of East Liverpool, Ohio, wrote the lyrics to the classic hymn Constantly Abiding in the mid-1800s: 

There’s a peace in my heart that the world never gave,

A peace it cannot take away;
Though the trials of life may surround like a cloud,
I’ve a peace that has come here to stay!

Constantly abiding, Jesus is mine;
Constantly abiding, rapture divine;
He never leaves me lonely, whispers, O so kind:
“I will never leave thee,” Jesus is mine.

All the world seemed to sing of a Savior and King,
When peace sweetly came to my heart;
Troubles all fled away and my night turned to day,
Blessed Jesus, how glorious Thou art!

*****

Leila n. Morris wrote, Sweet Will of God, in the 1870s:

My stubborn will at last hath yielded;
I would be Thine, and Thine alone,
And this the prayer my lips are bringing,
“Lord, let in me Thy will be done.”
Sweet will of God, still fold me closer,
Till I am wholly lost in Thee;
Sweet will of God, still fold me closer,
  Till I am wholly lost in Thee.

2
I’m tired of sin, footsore and weary,
The darksome path hath dreary grown,
But now a light has ris’n to cheer me;
I find in Thee my Star, my Sun.

3
Thy precious will, O conqu’ring Savior,
Doth now embrace and compass me;
All discords hushed, my peace a river,
My soul a prisoned bird set free.

4
Shut in with Thee, O Lord, forever,
My wayward feet no more to roam;
What pow’r from Thee my soul can sever?
The center of God’s will my home.



(new article tomorrow for sure)