Charles Wesley (1707-1788; see Biographies) wrote many hymns for children, at first scattered throughout tracts and booklets. In 1742 he and his brother John brought them together in Hymns and Sacred Poems, where this one first appeared, and later in Hymns for Little Children, 1763. The four stanzas SDAH has are selected from 28 stanzas, each of two lines only, in the original of this hymn and Wesley’s following one, “Lamb of God, I Look to Thee.”

In the 1767 edition of Hymns for Little Children Wesley added and Others of Riper Years to the title, showing that more hymns were included for children who no longer were little in size or ability. John Wesley wrote in a preface in 1790: “There are two ways of writing or speaking to children: the one is to let ourselves down to them; the other, to lift them up to us. Dr. Watts has written in the former way and has succeeded admirably well, speaking to children as children and leaving them as he found them. The following hymns are written on the other plan; they contain strong and manly sense, yet expressed in such plain and easy language, as even children may understand. But when they do understand them, they will be children no longer, only in years and stature.” This hymn is universally loved and found in a multitude of hymnbooks.

GENTLE JESUS was composed by Martin Shaw (1875-1958; see Biographies) while at his first position of organist-choirmaster at St. Mary’s, Primrose Hill, London. It was printed in Additional Tunes and Settings, 1915. The utter simplicity of the melody and harmony make this a hymn that children can quickly learn and sing.

📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.