William Dunn Longstaff, a wealthy Englishman, heard a sermon preached by a returned missionary from China, Griffith John, on the text: “Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). The verse is a direct quotation from the Old Testament (Lev. 11:44), where it appears as a description of a future event rather than an imperative command. Longstaff was a friend of D. L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey, and when this evangelistic duo visited the northeastern part of England he showed them the poem he had written as a result of his hearing the sermon.

The poem was written in 1882 and given to Sankey, who passed it on to George Coles Stebbins (1846-1945; see Biographies), who laid it aside for further attention. Not until eight years later, in 1890, when Stebbins was in India, did he remember its existence. He was leading the music in an evangelistic revival meeting and the subject of holiness was mentioned. This triggered Stebbins’ memory, so he searched for the poem among his papers, found it, and set the words to this tune, HOLINESS. He sent the complete hymn to Sankey, who published it later that same year in Winnowed Songs for the Sunday School.

Longstaff was born on January 28, 1822, in Sunderland, England, the son of a rich shipowner. He was a faithful steward of his riches and was known to be a most philanthropic and generous individual. He was treasurer of the Bethesda Free Chapel in Sunderland; he was a friend of Moody and Sankey, and also of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. He died on April 2, 1894, in his hometown of Sunderland.