In 1901 two nieces of Cleland Boyd McAfee, professor of systematic Theology at the Union Theological Seminary, Chicago, had died suddenly of diphtheria, but the whole family, though broken in spirit, still trusted in God. McAfee had been in the habit of writing a special hymn, both words and music, for the quarterly Communion service of the Presbyterian church of which he was pastor. The circumstances of his bereavement and of that of his elder brother, the nieces’ father, who also lived in Chicago, evoked the thought that the peace and comfort that they needed and had received was near to the heart of God. So he wrote the words of this hymn under the title “The Heart of God,” and its accompanying tune, and had his church choir rehearse it. They then went outside his brother’s home, where the family was in quarantine, and sang the hymn. They also sang it the following day for the Communion service. The hymn was preserved by another brother, also a minister, who used it in his congregation at the Presbyterian church in Berkeley, California. It first appeared in print in 1903 in The Choir Leader, the house magazine of the Lorenz Publishing Company, Dayton, Ohio.

McAfee was born on September 25, 1866, at Ashley, Missouri; he was educated at Park College, Parkville, and then at the seminary, before returning to teach at the college. He was pastor and director of the college church in 1901 at Chicago, then went to Brooklyn. In 1912 he was a professor at McCormick Theological Seminary, and from 1930 to 1936 secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. He retired in New Hampshire, but continued to lecture, teach, preach, and write until his death at age 77. He died on February 4, 1944, at Jaffrey, New Hampshire. TOUR Since the late 1930s this hymn has served as a prayer theme on the Voice of Prophecy radiobroadcast.

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