We are indebted to William J. Reynolds, is editor of the Baptist Hymnal, 1975, for this hymn. The following account of how it was written is from his Companion to the Baptist Hymnal, 1976:

“Hugh T. McElrath wrote this hymn in the summer of 1962. He provides this information: ‘I was sitting at my studio desk trying to focus my attention on some research that needed completion. My mind wandered; my interest lagged, and my thoughts kept turning to formulating some verses to fit the appealing Irish tune CLONMEL, which I had recently come to know and love. Being a teacher charged with the task of challenging minds, I was imbued with the idea of praising God with the mind as well as every other part of one’s being. Taking Mark 12:30 as my inspiration and guide, I wrote all three stanzas of the hymn during the course of that afternoon. At first having no thought of submitting the hymn in a competition, I later revised it slightly and sent it in to the Southern Baptist Hymn Writing Competition of 1962, where it received honorable mention.'”

Hugh Thomas McElrath was born March 1, 1932, at Murray, Kentucky. He was educated at Murray State University; Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; and a conservatory in Bologna, Italy. He finally earned the Ph.D. at Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, New York. In 1948 he began teaching at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, guiding students in voice, musicology, hymnology, and worship. He has written significant articles on these subjects for a number of journals, and was a member of Subcommittee III: Theological and Doctrinal Evaluation for the Baptist Hymnal, 1975.

CLONMEL (named after a small town in County Tipperary, Ireland) is Irish folk song known as “The Flight of the Earls.” It first appeared as a hymn tune in the Church and School Hymnal, London, 1926. Reynolds first made the arrangement as a unison anthem for children, and then the hymn tune version for the Baptist Hymnal, 1975.

William Jensen Reynolds was born April 2, 1920 at Atlantic, Iowa. When he was five months old, his parents moved to Oklahoma, where his father was a church music director and evangelistic singer. He was educated at Oklahoma Baptist University, Southwest Missouri State University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, North Texas State University (M.M.), and Westminster Choir College. In 1961 George Peabody College for Teachers conferred on him the Ed.D.

After serving as minister of music in several Oklahoma churches, he joined the Church Music Department of the Baptist Sunday School Board, Nashville, Tennessee, in 1955, and helped to develop church music programs in some 33,000 Southern Baptist churches. A composer and arranger of choral music, hymns, anthems, and cantatas, he became head of the department in 1971. He is the author of A Survey of Christian Hymnody, 1963; Christ and the Carols, 1967; and Congregational Singing, 1975. Besides chairing the committee for Baptist Hymnal, 1975, and authoring Companion to the Baptist Hymnal, 1976, he had the distinction of having written the companion 12 years earlier for the previous Baptist Hymnal, 1956, titled for two hymns, eight original tunes, and four arrangements. He has served as music director for meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention and other national and international convocations. He has been very active in the Hymn Society of America, serving as its president in 1977. Presently he teaches in the School of Church Music, Southwestern Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.

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