The great hymns, and their stories
Behind every enduring hymn is a story — a slave-ship captain converted, a father who lost four daughters at sea, a blind woman who wrote nine thousand songs. Full lyrics, the history, and the Scripture each hymn stands on. All public domain, free to sing, print, and share.
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
The battle hymn of the Reformation — Psalm 46 forged into a fortress by a man with a price on his head.
Abide with Me
Written by a dying pastor after his last sermon — the evening hymn sung at bedsides, gravesides, and stadiums alike.
All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name
Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all — the church's great coronation anthem.
Amazing Grace
Written by a former slave-ship captain who never got over being forgiven — the most sung hymn in the English language.
And Can It Be
Written in the days after Charles Wesley's own conversion — amazing love, how can it be, that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Be Thou My Vision
A thousand-year-old Irish prayer that asks for one thing only: that God himself be what the eyes look for.
Blessed Assurance
Blind from infancy, Fanny Crosby wrote eight thousand hymns — this one, she said, simply sang itself off a friend's piano.
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Written at twenty-two by a converted gang member who knew exactly how prone to wander his own heart was.
Crown Him with Many Crowns
A coronation hymn for the Lamb upon his throne — crown after crown laid on the one worthy of them all.
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
Not born of crisis but of ordinary faithfulness, day by day — Lamentations 3 turned into the church's morning song.
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
The marching song of the Welsh revival — the exodus journey sung by every pilgrim through a barren land.
Holy, Holy, Holy
The hymn of the thrice-holy God — written for Trinity Sunday by a bishop who died at forty-two, published by his widow.
I Need Thee Every Hour
Written by a busy housewife on an ordinary morning — the hymn of moment-by-moment dependence.
It Is Well with My Soul
Written at sea, near the spot where the author's four daughters drowned — the church's deepest song of sorrow and trust.
Jesus Paid It All
Scribbled on a hymnbook flyleaf during a sermon — all the debt I owe, paid in full by another.
Just As I Am
Written by an invalid who felt useless — the hymn that has drawn more people to Christ than any sermon.
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
Born from a music teacher's letters of condolence — the everlasting arms of Deuteronomy, underneath and holding.
My Faith Looks Up to Thee
Written by an exhausted young teacher at the end of a hard year — faith looking up from the bottom to the Lamb of Calvary.
Nearer, My God, to Thee
Jacob's ladder set to music — the hymn said to have been played as the Titanic went down.
O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing
Written for the first anniversary of Wesley's conversion — one voice wishing it were a thousand.
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
Psalm 90 in English dress — the hymn nations reach for at funerals, remembrances, and the turning of years.
Rock of Ages
Nothing in my hand I bring — the fiercest statement of grace alone in all hymnody, from a preacher who died at thirty-eight.
Softly and Tenderly
The gentlest of all invitation hymns — Jesus, calling, pleading, waiting at the door: come home.
Standing on the Promises
A former soldier and athlete's marching song of faith — feet planted on the exceeding great and precious promises.
Take My Life and Let It Be
A consecration hymn written in a single night of joy — every part of a life handed over, line by line.
The Old Rugged Cross
An itinerant Methodist evangelist's meditation on Galatians 6:14 — America's most requested hymn for half a century.
There Is a Fountain
Written by a poet who battled despair all his life — a fountain filled with blood, and a dying thief who rejoiced to see it.
To God Be the Glory
Great things He hath done — a blind hymn-writer's shout of praise for a salvation offered to every one.
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
Written to comfort a far-away mother by a man whose own life was a chain of griefs — the gentlest argument for prayer ever penned.
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
The hymn Charles Wesley said he would have traded all his own to have written — love so amazing, so divine.
Why hymns endure
A hymn is doctrine you can hum. The best of them compress whole chapters of Scripture into lines a child can carry for ninety years — which is why they surface at hospital bedsides and gravesides long after sermons are forgotten. Most were written in the middle of real trouble, and it shows.
Every hymn here is in the public domain: the words belong to the whole church now. Beside each text we set the Scriptures the writer was leaning on, quoted exactly from the King James Version, so you can sing with the book open.