More About Jesus
Words: Eliza Edmunds Hewitt (b. June 28, 1851; d. Apr. 24, 1920)
Music: Sweney, by John Robson Sweney (b. Dec. 31, 1837; d. Apr. 10, 1899)
Note: I don’t currently have a posting specifically on More About Jesus, but the link given below will tell you a bit about the author. After a prolonged illness, she began writing poems, especially for children. This is one of them, and it came to the attention of John Sweney, who set it to music. Their collaboration continued with other songs, notably including There Is Sunshine in My Soul Today. I don’t personally have a problem with the joyful rhythm of Sweney’s tune, if it’s not sung too quickly. If you do, you might try using the tune Pentecost.
(Stanza numbers in brackets below refer to the stanza number in The Cyber Hymnal. Find the link at the bottom of the article.)
This simple song repeats the word “more” twenty-six times (including the four refrains). Though its emphasis is different, it has this in common with Philip Bliss’s More Holiness Give Me. For some, this may make Hewitt’s song trite, but the repetition certainly makes a point. Contrast the spiritual person with the secular materialist for a moment.
All the materialist wants is more–more of the things of this world, more money, more acquisitions, more possessions. The spiritual person (as the Bible defines this), hungers to know more of God, and all that pertains to the spiritual and eternal world.
As the Christian is one who is rightly related to Christ, so the spiritual person is rightly related to the Holy Spirit. That is, he is walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25), submissive to and empowered by the Holy Spirit. The spiritual person is not necessarily fully mature, but he is definitely heading in that direction. He is teachable, and growing in his Christian life (contrast I Cor. 2:9-16 with I Cor. 3:1-3).
Could we not say that the more of his kind of “mores” the first individual has, the more hardened and entrenched is his secularism and materialism? And that the more “mores” the spiritual person has in the other direction, the more Christlike he is? What a thoughtful compendium of the latter Eliza Hewitt gives us! She longs:
To know more about the Lord Jesus
To show more of His grace to others
To experience more of His saving fullness
To understand more of His love
To discern more of His will
With regard to the latter, the author is clear on a number of important things. In (2) and (3), she reminds us that it is the indwelling Holy Spirit who teaches us (Jn. 16:13-14; I Cor. 2:10), giving enlightenment as we study God’s Word. By the Spirit, we actually hold communion with the Lord, and we are empowered to appropriate the truths found in the Scriptures.
Finally, the hymn points us to Christ, our great High Priest, on the throne of God (Heb. 4:14-16), and to the resources of heaven that are ours through prayer (Phil. 4:6, 19). Hewitt wants to know more about Christ’s kingdom (Matt. 6:10) and more about His coming reign (Isa. 9:6-7). That is a meaningful hymn!
(1) More about Jesus would I know,
More of His grace to others show;
More of His saving fullness see,
More of His love who died for me.
More, more about Jesus,
More, more about Jesus;
More of His saving fullness see,
More of His love who died for me.
Questions:
- What in particular do you desire more of, with regard to your spiritual life?
- What in your spiritual life do you definitely desire less of?
Links:
- 24 April 1920 Eliza Hewitt Died
- More About Jesus (The Cyber Hymnal)