Closing
Hymn Story
"GREAT
IS THY FAITHFULNESS"
(SDAH
100)
In 1923 Thomas
Chisholm sent this hymn to his coworker, William M. Runyan, who set it to music.
In 1954 Runyan recalled, "I wrote harmonies to some 20 or 25 of [Chisholm's]
poems. This particular poem held such an appeal that I prayed most earnestly
that my tune might carry over its message in a worthy way."
Thomas Obediah
Chisholm was born near Franklin, Kentucky, July 29, 1866. After only an eighth-grade
education in a small country school, he became the teacher himself at age 16!
At 21 he was associate editor of his hometown's paper, the Franklin Favorite.
After his conversion in a revival meeting conducted by H. C. Morrison, Chisholm
accepted the preacher's invitation to move to Louisville and become office editor
and business manager of his paper, the Pentecostal Herald. He was ordained
a Methodist minister in 1903, but because of ill health, he was able to serve
as pastor for only one year. After five years on a farm near Winona Lake, Indiana,
he became a life insurance agent there, and continued that work in Vineland,
New Jersey, until retirement in 1953.
Of the more
than 1,200 poems he wrote, some 800 were published, and a number were set to
music by a dozen of the best-known gospel song composers of that time. Fanny
Crosby took a great interest in his early writing and did much to encourage
him. He said of his work, "I have sought to be true to the Word, and to avoid
flippant and catchy titles and treatment. I have greatly desired that each hymn
or poem might have some definite message to the hearts for whom it was written."
Another lyric by Chisholm that has had wide usage is "Living for Jesus a life
that is true." He died at Ocean Grove, New Jersey, February 29, 1960.
William Marion
Runyan was born January 21, 1870, at Marion, New York, the son of a Methodist
minister. As a youth he showed musical talent, playing the organ for church
at age 12. Ordained a Methodist minister at age 21, he served several pastorates
in Kansas for 12 years before his appointment as evangelist for the Central
Kansas Methodist Conference in 1903. After 20 years in this work, he was forced
by increasing deafness to take up other duties, and became associated with John
Brown University, Sulphur Springs, Arkansas. He pastored the Federated Church
and edited the Christian Worker Magazine from 1923 to 1925. Until his
retirement in 1948, he did some work for Moody Bible Institute and served as
an editor for Hope Publishing Company. Wheaton College conferred on him the
honorary Litt.D. in 1948. Death came at Pittsburgh, Kansas, on July 29, 1957.
The Seventh-day
Adventist Hymnal, published in 1985, was the first Adventist hymnal to include
this hymn.
--Adapted
from Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White, Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist
Hymnal, 1988, pp. 150-151.