Miss Charlotte Elliott was born on March 18, 1789, at Clapham, Surrey, where she spent her first 32 years. In 1821 she suffered a serious illness, which left her a complete invalid for the rest if her life. The next year Henri Abraham Cesar Malan (1787-1864; see SDAH 330), Swiss preacher and evangelist from Geneva, visited her father’s home. In the course of conversation Charlotte told him she did not know how to find Christ. Malan’s reply was “come to Him just as you are.” Elliott owned her conversation to this statement, and although it was not the immediate cause of her writing this hymn, which dose use the words, “Just as I am, O Lamb of God, I come” in every stanza, the words seem to have lingered a long time in her mind.

She spent some time in Torquay in her brother’s home, but then moved to Brighton, Sussex, were another brother, Henry Venn Elliot, was a clergyman. He had planned a school where the daughters of the poorer clergyman could be educated at nominal cost, and in 1843 planned a bazaar to raise funds for this project. Charlotte was frustrated by her incapacity to render any physical help in the preparations and spent a wakeful night worrying. Unable to go to the bazaar, she was left alone at home, reliving her worries of the night before. For her own hope and comfort, she wrote the six stanzas of this hymn, under the title “Him that Cometh to Me I Will in No Wise Cast Out” (John 6:37). When her sister- in-law returned home and saw the poem she asked for a copy, and without asking Charlotte’s permission had it printed as a leaflet in 1835. It was included in Charlotte’s The Invalid’s Hymn Book, 1836. She added a seventh stanza (not included in the SDAH) in the same year, in her Hours of Sorrow Cheered and Comforted. Before her conversion Elliott wrote humorous poems, but afterward only poetry and essays on religions subjects.

In 1834 she accepted the editorship of the Christian Remembrance Pocketbook, and kept that post for 25 years. She seemed to have a special feeling for, and appeal to, those who were ill. She wrote several books and 150 hymns, among them SDAH 603, “Christian, Seek Not Repose.” She died in Brighton on September 22, 1871. 

SAFFRON WALDEN was composed by Arthur Henry Brown, who was born July 24, 1830, in Brentwood, not far from Saffron Walden, Essex, England. After a few organ lessons, he was self-taught, at age 11 he became organist of Brentwood Parish Church, a post held for 40 years. In his more than 80 years of playing the organ and directing choirs, mostly in his hometown, he developed an enthusiastic for Gregorian chants and edited a book of organ accompaniments for them. He published the Altar hymnal, containing hymns and introits for the Anglican Eucharistic service. He was also organist for Sir Anthony Brown’s School, and wrote at least 700 hymn tunes. He died February 15, 1926. SAFFRON WARDEN was first printed in Hymnal Companion, where it was with another of Elliott’s texts, “O Holy Savior, Friend Unseen.” English Hymnal, 1906, was the first to match it with “Just as I Am.” 

The SDAH Committee included all stanzas with this tune, realizing that congregations will also have to option of singing these words with the familiar WOODWORTH on facing page.