This hymn was written by Emily Elizabeth Steele Elliott and printed privately in 1864 for the choir and the children of the parish school of St. Mark’s Church, Brighton, England, where her father was the rector. It was later published in 1870 in the Church Missionary Juvenile Instructor, a magazine that she edited for six years. The words are a homily on the text “There was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7). 

Emily Elliott was born in Brighton, Sessex, on July 22, 1836, at her father’s rectory. She was an enthusiastic mission worker and a capable poetess. She wrote 70 hymns and poems in her Chimes of Consecration, 1873, and 71 hymns in her Chimes for Daily Service, 1880. She died at Islington, north London, on August 3, 1897. 

MARGARET was composed especially for this hymn by Timothy Richard Matthews and first published in Children’s Hymns and Tunes, 1876. He was born in 1826 in Colmworth, a small village near Bedford, Bedfordshire. He was educated at Cambridge University, graduating in 1853. Ordained in that year, he was appointed as curate at St. Mary’s, Nottingham. In 1859 he moved to North Cotes in Lincolnshire, near Grimsby. Ten years later he became rector of the same church, serving until his retirement in 1907. He composed church music and more than 100 hymn tunes, many of which appear in his Congregational Melodies, 1863. He also compiled The North Cotes Supplemental Tune Book. His last home was in Tetney, a larger village near North Cotes, where he died on January 5, 1910.