Both words and music of this gospel song were written by Charles Gabriel in one evening in 1900. They were prompted by the word glory, which Ed Card, the superintendent of the Sunshine Rescue Mission in St. Louis, Missouri, used frequently during meetings. Card also used the word in his prayers, earnestly and convincingly, and would invariably end his prayers with “and that will be glory for me.” His reverent use of these words earned him the nickname of “Old Glory Face.” Gabriel wrote his words around this theme. The song first appeared in E. O. Excell’s Make His Praise Glorious. It resembles most gospel songs by having a singable melody, an alto part generally a third or a sixth below, and much repetition in the tenor and bass parts.

Charles Hutchinson Gabriel, who sometimes used Charlotte G. Homer as a pseudonym, was born on August 18, 1856, in Wilton, Iowa. He taught himself how to play the reed organ in the farm home. In his book Sixty Years of Gospel Song he said, “I told my mother that someday I would write a song of my own, and I shall never forget her reply: ‘My boy, I would rather have you write a song that would help somebody, than see you president of the United States.’ Although I was then a mere lad, her words became the anchor of my ambition.” He taught his first singing school at 16, and wrote his first song at age 17. For two years he was music director for Grace Methodist Church, San Francisco; in 1895 he moved to Chicago and became a publisher. Later he associated with the Rodeheaver Hall-Mack Company, a relationship that he maintained until his death on September 15, 1932, at age 76.

Between 1910 and 1920, Gabriel composed many gospel songs for the Billy Sunday-Rodeheaver evangelistic campaigns, doing most of his work at night while others were sleeping. As a compiler and editor he was involved in the production of 35 books of gospel songs, five Sabbath school books, seven male voice books, six women’s voice books, 10 books for children, 19 books of anthems, 23 choir cantatas, 41 Santa Claus cantatas, 10 juvenile cantatas, four operettas, two reed organ instruction books, and four piano books. His other tunes in SDAH are No. 512, “Just When I Need Him Most,” and No. 625, “Higher Ground.”

📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.