This hymn was the favorite of the author, Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879; see Biographies); it was found in her pocket Bible after her death. It was written at Ormont Dessous, Switzerland, in September 1874, under the title “Trusting Jesus.” It was printed in its original form of six stanzas in her Loyal Responses in 1878.

Havergal composed her own tune URBANE for these words, but SDAH has them with BULLINGER, composed in 1874 by Ethelbert William Bullinger. Born December 15, 1837, in Kent, he was a choirboy at Canterbury Cathedral and studied music with William H. Monk (see SDAH 50). Trained for the ministry at King’s College, London, he became a scholar in Greek and Hebrew, and in 1881 was honored by the archbishop of Canterbury with the Lambeth D.D. He wrote several hymn tunes, but this is the only one that has survived. Bullinger died in Hendon, London on June 6, 1913.

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