She hunted through many books for the words she desired, but could find
none that satisfied her. Some time later, as she was riding in a stage
coach with nothing to occupy her, she thought of the tune again. Taking
an old envelope from her pocket, she recorded on the back of it the words
that have come to be loved on both sides of the Atlantic, and some day
probably will be sung by the children of all the world.
When she returned home, she taught the words and the melody to her Sunday
school class. Her father, who was superintendent of the school, chanced
to hear them one day.
"Where did that hymn come from?" he asked.
"Jemima made it!" was the proud answer of the youngsters.
Without telling his daughter about it, the father sent a copy of the
words to the "Sunday School Teachers' Magazine," and in a few weeks it
appeared for the first time in print. Since that time it has continued to
find a place year after year in almost every juvenile hymnal published in
the English language.
The last stanza of the hymn, which begins with the words, "But thousands
and thousands who wander and fall," was added subsequently by the author,
who desired to make it suitable for missionary gatherings. Her interest
in foreign missions continued unabated throughout her life. At one time
she was accepted as a missionary to the women of India, but poor health
prevented her from carrying out her purpose. However, she edited "The
Missionary Repository," the first missionary magazine for children, and
numbered among her contributors such famous missionaries as David
Livingstone, Robert Moffatt and James Montgomery.
In 1843 she married a minister, Rev. Samuel Luke. After his death in 1868
she devoted much of her time to promoting the erection of parsonages in
parishes that were too poor to provide them for their pastors.
When an international convention of the Christian Endeavor society was
held in Baltimore in 1904, Mrs. Luke sent the following message to the
young people:
"Dear children, you will be men and women soon, and it is for you and the
children of England to carry the message of a Saviour's love to every
nation of this sin-stricken world. It is a blessed message to carry, and
it is a happy work to do. The Lord make you ever faithful to Him, and
unspeakably happy in His service! I came to Him at ten years of age, and
at ninety-one can testify to His care and faithfulness."
She died in 1906 at the age of ninety-three years. Although she wrote a
great deal of inspiring Christian literature, it is only her beautiful
"Sweet Story of Old" that has come down to us.
Redemption's Story in a Hymn
There is a green hill far away,
Without a city wall,
Where the dear Lord was crucified,
Who died to save us all.
We may not know, we cannot tell,
What pains He had to bear;
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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