The tune BENEDICTION was composed in 1934 by LeRoy Edwin Froom to provide a suitable closing item for the choir or the congregation. As was his undeviating custom, he wrote the tune first and then added appropriate words. A large percentage of composers would say that they work the other way around-the music is inspired by the rhythm and meaning of the words.

LeRoy Edwin Froom was born October 16, 1890. After study at Pacific Union College and Walla Walla College, he graduated from Washington Training Center, now Columbia Union College, Takoma Park, Maryland. He began his ministry pastoring the Cambridge, Maryland, SDA church. After a short time as pastor at Wilmington, Delaware, he was called to Pacific Press Publishing Association to train as an editor. In 1918 he went to China and was editor of the Chinese Signs of the Times, also doing graduate study at University of Nanking. Back in the States, he edited the Watchman magazine for a time. From 1926 to 1950 he served in the Ministerial Association of the General Conference, first as associate, then as secretary. In 1927 he founded and continued as editor of Ministry magazine. From 1950 to 1958 he was a field secretary for the General Conference and also taught historical theology at the Theological Seminary, Andrews University. Among the many books he authored are the four-volume Prophetic Faith of our Fathers, the two-volume Conditionalist Faith of our Fathers, and The Holy Spirit-Executive of the Godhead, which he had nearly completed at the time of his death. He was a member of the committee for Church Hymnal, 1941, and was the spearhead for the publication in 1944 of the evangelistic songbook Gospel Melodies. He died at Takoma Park, Maryland, on February 20, 1974.

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