Roswell Fenner Cottrell (1814–1892) wrote these words in 1886 when he was a minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The poem was first published that same year in Hymns and Tunes. He was born into a Seventh-day Baptist family, descended from the Huguenots, in the state of New York. Prior to 1844 he was much interested in the teachings of William Miller concerning the second advent of Jesus, but he realized that the Millerites were not observing the true Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. About 1851, through reading the Adventist paper Review and Herald, Cottrell joined the Adventists and became a regular contributor as writer and poet; he also prepared Sabbath school lessons every week for the children. In 1855, when the publishing house moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, he served on the editorial committee.

A forceful writer and powerful preacher, Cottrell was a pioneer in tent evangelism, working with J. N. Loughborough and W. S. Ingraham in New York and Pennsylvania.

This hymn, first appearing in Hymns and Tunes, 1886, describes the great love of God for many shown in sending His Son to die for us. Now He pleads on our behalf, for He knows our weaknesses and will not be satisfied until He restores us. Cottrell also wrote SDAH 417, “O Solemn Thought.”

In the Church Hymnal, 1941, this text was set to WOODLAND by Nathaniel D. Gould, but was seldom used. With a number of other wanted texts, the SDAH Committee sent it to Adventist composers, asking for original tunes. From several submitted, LA SIERRA by Perry Beach, was chosen.

Born October 24, 1917, at Lincoln, Nebraska, Beach earned the B.S. in music education at University of Nebraska in 1939. At Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, New York, studying with Wilbur Chenoweth, Howard Hanson, and Bernard Rogers, he received the M.A. in music composition in 1940, and a Ph.D. in 1953. After teaching two years at Union College, Lincoln, Nebraska, he spent three years in the Army during World War II, 10 months of which were in France. The rest of his career has been as professor of music, at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan (1946–1957), and at La Sierra College, Loma Linda University, Riverside, California (1957 to the present). He has continued his teaching and writing since retirement in 1982.

At age 17 he won the prize for composing a class song at Lincoln High School, and in 1959, the words and music of his hymn “To Make Man Whole” were chosen as the official hymn for Loma Linda University. Publications include Rondo Capriccioso, a two-piano arrangement of the Mendelssohn work; Christmas Spiritual, Rejoice in the Lord, double chorus and brass; and Come Unto Me. His cantata Then Said Isaiah was performed and recorded on Crystal Records by the Vincent Mitzeffelt Camerata of Los Angeles. After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Beach wrote Ode to a Fallen President, which was sung and recorded by the La Sierra College student body in a chapel service. From his prolific and versatile pen have come works for choir, orchestra, male chorus, piano, brass, and solo songs in many styles. In 1980 he began a collection of the compositions of Seventh-day Adventists worldwide, making them available for performance and research. The collection is now at the La Sierra College Library. In 1986 he wrote, on commission, a symphony that was first performed by the Redlands Symphony Orchestra in March of 1987.

The tune name LA SIERRA comes from the college where Beach has taught theory and composition since 1957, and the community where he lives with his wife, Marilyn, and enjoys hobbies of rose growing, amateur radio, and color photography.