The 1869 convention of the Young Men’s Christian Association was held in Cleveland, Ohio.  The motto over the pulpit, made in evergreen letters, spelled out the words “Christ for the World, and the World for Christ.”  Samuel Wolcott, who attended the convention, was so impressed by the slogan that as he walked home on February 7, 1869, he composed this hymn.  There is one other stanza.

              Wolcott was born at South Windsor, Connecticut, on July 2, 1813.  He was educated at Yale and then graduated from Andover Theological Seminary in 1837.  In 1840 he went as a missionary to Syria, but ill health compelled him to return in 1842.  He pastored in Congregational churches in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Chicago.  For a time he was secretary of the Ohio home Missionary Society.  Though beginning late in life to write hymns, he did compose more than 200.  He died at Longmeadow, Massachusetts, on February 24, 1886.

              ITALIAN HYMN was composed in 1769 by Felice de Giardini (1716-1796; see SDAH 71), where it is also used, with alternate harmony, for the words “Come, Thou Almighty King,” for which it was especially written.