Judson VanDeVenter, born December 5, 1855, at Dundee, Michigan, wrote these words in 1896 while at the home of a friend in Florida. VanDeVenter was an art teacher who had visited European art galleries for further study of his specialty. He was also a licensed local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church. While singing in the choir one day in Sharon, Pennsylvania, he felt an urge to become an evangelist. It took him five years of struggle with himself to come to a final decision to dedicate himself to Christian service. The words, then, are a reminder of the intense personal struggle and victory. There is one other stanza, the original fourth:

4. All to Jesus I surrender,

Lord I give myself to Thee,

Fill me with Thy love and power,

Let Thy blessing fall on me.

In Christ in song, 1908, a suitable text heads the hymn: “Yield yourselves unto God” (Rom. 6:13). The author conducted evangelistic campaigns in the United States and in Great Britain, and later in life in life greatly influenced the young Billy Graham. He died July 17, 1939, at Tampa, Florida.

The tune was composed by VanDeVenter’s associate in evangelism, Winfield Scott Weeden, of Ohio, and appeared in Gospel Songs of Grace and Glory, 1896. The tenor part in the stanza is a third above the melody, and in the refrain the alto is either a third or a sixth separated from the soprano. The descending passages, the second one note successively lower, and a climax of a complete descending octave. The hymn became very popular because of its frequent use in the Torrey-Alexander missions.

Weeden, born March 29, 1847, at Middleport, Ohio, taught singing school, entered evangelistic work, and solo singer and song leader with VanDeVenter. He also compiled several collections of gospel songs. In later life he owned a small hotel in lower Manhattan, New York, and died July 31, 1908. Appropriately, the words I Surrender All are engraved on his tombstone.