I Will Sing The Wondrous Story

I will sing the wondrous story

Of the Christ who died for me—

How He left His home in glory

For the cross of Calvary.

Yes, I’ll sing the wondrous story

Of the Christ who died for me,

Sing it with the saints in glory,

Gathered by the crystal sea.

I was lost but Jesus found me—

Found the sheep that went astray,

Threw His loving arms around me,

Drew me back into His way.

Days of darkness still come o’er me,

Sorrow’s paths I often tread;

But the Savior still is with me—

By His hand I’m safely led.

He will keep me till the river

Rolls its waters at my feet;

Then He’ll bear me safely over,

Where the loved ones I shall meet.

FRANCIS HAROLD ROWLEY (1854–1942)

TWENTY-ONE-YEAR-OLD Peter Bilhorn approached Pastor Francis Rowley one Sunday night after the evening service. The year was 1886; the place was North Adams, Massachusetts. Young Bilhorn had been converted the previous year, and already he was using his musical talents for the Lord. “Why don’t you write a hymn for me to set to music?” he asked Pastor Rowley.

Rowley’s response was this gospel song, which originally began “Can’t you sing the wondrous story?” For Bilhorn, who was a singer as well as a pianist and organist, it was an ideal personal testimony. As an unconverted teenager, he had started his music career singing in Chicago taverns. He understood the line “I was lost but Jesus found me—found the sheep that went astray.”

Bilhorn went on singing the wondrous story the rest of his life, writing two thousand songs.

They were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb: “Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations.”

Revelation 15:3