This hymn, with this tune, was first published by W. L. Thompson in his Century Hymnal, 1904. It concerns living life as a friend of Jesus.

Will Lamartine Thompson was born November 7, 1847, at East Liverpool, Ohio; he studied at Mount Union College, Ohio; Boston Conservatory of Music; and later at Leipzig, Germany. Back in his hometown, he formed Will L. Thompson and Company, and had a successful career writing and publishing sacred and secular songs in many collections. He was known as “The Bard of Ohio.” As a boy in a musical family, he quickly learned to play piano, organ, and other musical instruments. At 16 he was already composing secular songs that were good enough to be published. At age 27 he took four of his songs to a well-known publisher in Cleveland and offered all of them for $100. The publisher said they were worth, at the most, only $25. So Thompson went to New York and had them printed; he managed the sales himself. They all had a good sale, but two of them became immensely popular. Within a year he had earned more than $1,000 from these songs. This encouraged him to start his own business.

Many of his songs were written as the result of a sudden inspiration, so he always carried a notebook wherever he went, and would jot down ideas for text and music. When asked, “How do you get the music in your mind without going to the instrument?” he replied, “The music comes to my mind the same as any other thought. As I write the words of a song, a fitting melody is already in my mind; and as I jot down the music, I know just how it will sound. I write the different parts of the harmony, and the whole piece is rehearsed in my mind.”

Among his many sacred songs that became widely used are: “There’s a Great Day Coming”; “The Sinner and the Song”; “Lead Me Gently Home, Father”; and “Softly and Tenderly” (see SDAH 287). He died in New York City September 20, 1909.

The tune is named ELIZABETH in honor of his wife, Elizabeth Johnson, whom he married in 1891 at East Liverpool, Ohio. He made this state and river famous by his secular song, “My Home on the Old Ohio.” The tune ELIZABETH is in the unusual meter of 8.6.8.6.8.8.4.4.3.