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I Need Thee Every Hour

I Need Thee Every Hour

Words: Annie Sherwood Hawks (b. May 28, 1836; d. Jan. 3, 1918)
Music: Robert Lowry (March 12, 1826; d. Nov. 25, 1899)

Note: Robert Lowry was Mrs. Hawks’s pastor. She gave the text of her hymn to him, and he supplied the tune. The original had five stanzas, but for some reason most hymn books I’ve seen omit (4), which adds a significant thought.

(4) I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises in me fulfil.

(Stanza numbers in brackets below refer to the stanza number in The Cyber Hymnal. Find the link at the bottom of the article.)

When it was first published, Annie Hawks’s hymn was headed by John 15:5 (Jesus speaking), “Without Me you can do nothing.” The text is found in what is sometimes called the Upper Room Discourse, the Lord’s teaching passed on to His disciples, just hours before He was crucified. John 15:1-16 deals with a kind of parable or extended metaphor about The Vine and the Branches.

The Lord Jesus compares Himself to a grape vine (vs. 1), and His disciples to branches of the vine (vs. 5). It is from the vine that the branches receive life and nourishment, enabling them to bear fruit. In the same way, it is as we remain in intimate fellowship with the Lord that His people are equipped and energized to bear spiritual fruit. This is also the basis for effective prayer (vs. 7), since it is how our desires are conformed to His will (cf. I Jn. 5:14).

Fruit-bearing is God’s will for His followers (Jn. 15:16). And we can think of this in two particular ways. There is the inner fruit of Christ-like character that the Lord wants to see produced in us (cf. Gal. 5:22-23), and the outward fruit of our impact on the lives of others, through our own witness and service for Christ (cf. Rom. 1:13; Col. 1:10). For both to happen we need the ongoing and continual ministration of the Lord in our lives, through His Spirit.

(1) I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Saviour,
I come to Thee.

Mrs. Hawks identifies two particular things that can hinder our fruitfulness: sin and suffering. When we succumb to temptation, our sin breaks that intimacy of fellowship with the Lord that’s so essential if we’re to be fruitful. It’s not that we lose our salvation at such times. But there is certainly a loss of power and spiritual effectiveness, and a loss of joy in the Lord.

Suffering’s effect is a little different. Severe and extended suffering robs us of energy, and it can bring discouragement, a sense of inadequacy, even challenging our sense of worth. Often we are more vulnerable to temptation at such times, as well. But the Lord can prepare us to triumph, even then (Phil. 4:13).

It was in just such a state that, by the grace of God, Charlotte Elliott wrote the words of the hymn Just As I Am, some thirty-six years before the present hymn was written. Miss Elliot commented:

“He knows, and He alone, what it is, day after day, hour after hour, to fight against bodily feelings of almost overpowering weakness, languor and exhaustion, to resolve not to yield to slothfulness, depression and instability.”

Charlotte Elliott

Though Annie Hawks didn’t realize it at the time when she wrote her hymn, this struggle would be hers too, in later years, and she would understand in a new way why her song had been an unusual blessing to so many.

(2) I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.

(3) I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide, or life is in vain.

Questions:

  1. In what circumstances during the past week have you especially sensed your need of the Lord?
  2. Sometimes the special ministry of the Lord to a needy individual is conveyed through a Christian brother or sister. Is there someone you could help in this way today?

Links:

Today in 1819 – Frederic Huntington Born

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Frederic Dan Huntington served as a Unitarian clergyman in Boston, then becoming Professor of Christian Morals and University Preacher at Harvard, in 1855. In 1859 he joined the Episcopalians and became Bishop of Central New York in 1869. He died in 1904.

Huntington’s simple hymn, There’ll Be No Sorrow There, is a reminder of some of the blessings awaiting the believer in the heavenly kingdom.

There’ll be no night in heav’n,
In that blest world above;
No anxious toil, no weary hours;
For labour there is love.

There’ll be no sorrow there,
There’ll be no sorrow there,
In heav’n above, where all is love,
There’ll be no sorrow there.

There’ll be no grief in heav’n,
For life is one glad day,
And tears are those of former things
Which all have passed way.

There’ll be no sin in heav’n;
Behold that blessèd throng,
All holy in their spotless robes,
All holy in their song.

(2) Today in 1835 – Annie Hawks Born

Mrs. Hawks’s pastor for many years was another hymn writer, Robert Lowry, who encouraged her gift for writing poetry. She eventually wrote 400 hymns, mostly for Sunday Schools. Only one of them has remained in use, I Need Thee Every Hour–and isn’t that true of us all. We do need the Lord all the time. How blessed we are to have the promise of the Lord Jesus, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).

Of her song Annie Sherwood Hawks said:

I remember well the morning…when in the midst of the daily cares of my home…I was so filled with a sense of nearness of the Master that, wondering how one could live without Him either in joy or pain, these words, ‘I need Thee every hour,” were ushered into my mind….It was not until long years after, when [a] shadow fell over my way–the shadow of a great loss–that I understood something of the comforting words I had been permitted to write.

Her hymn begins:

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Saviour,
I come to Thee.

To learn about the first time this hymn was sung, see the second item under Today in 1850. And to read the story of how this song inspired the writing of another, see Today in 1901.

Today in 1830 – Alexander Ewing Born

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Alexander Ewing was a Scotsman. He studied law at Marischal College in his hometown. And when the Crimean War broke out, Ewing joined the army, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. But his greater interest was in music. He learned to play the violin, cello and cornet, and took a keen interest in choral music.

We know Alexander Ewing in hymnody for one contribution only, the hymn tune Ewing that is used with the hymn Jerusalem the Golden, a hymn about the heavenly kingdom, written around 1145 by Bernard of Cluny. Mr. Ewing was a member of the Harmonic Choir in Aberdeen, Scotland. He brought his new tune to choir practice one night, and that group was the first to sing it. (To see a little more about Ewing and the hymn mentioned, see Item #2 in post called Today in 1819.)

Jerusalem the golden, with milk and honey blest,
Beneath thy contemplation sink heart and voice oppressed.
I know not, O I know not, what joys await us there,
What radiancy of glory, what bliss beyond compare.

(2) Today in 1918 – Annie Hawks Died

Annie Sherwood Hawks wrote about 400 hymns during her lifetime, but only one is in common use today. I Need Thee Every Hour is a reminder of our total dependence on the Lord.

Permit me a brief personal reminiscence about this hymn. It was the signature song of a friend of our family named Ralph Hunter, perhaps the finest tenor soloist I ever heard in person. And he did not even sing solos until he was “discovered” by a neighbour, singing in his garden, and told that he should share his voice with the world. He was in his forties at the time.

Ralph Hunter was a humble man, a painter employed in a large International Harvester plant. My cousin Jack tells of being hired by them as a young man, and of his trepidation about his first day on the job. Would they mock his Christian faith? How would he be able to stand for Christ among the other men? But he says that as he entered the plant on that first day, he heard an amazing sound, a soaring tenor voice, from high in some scaffolding, singing a beautiful gospel song written by Alfred Ackley (with music by his older brother Bentley):

I am amazed that God could ever love me,
So full of sin, so covered o’er with shame;
Make me to walk with Him who is above me,
Cleansed by the pow’r of His redeeming name.

I am amazed that God would ever save me,
Naught but the cross could take away my sin;
Through faith in Christ, eternal life He gave me,
Now He abides forevermore within.

It was Ralph Hunter singing. And my cousin reports that the Lord used this testimony in song to give him courage and confidence in the workplace.

Many times, I heard Mr. Hunter sing Annie Hawks’s I Need Thee Every Hour. A special setting of the words was written for him, adapting a tune from Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly. In the Lord’s time, I look forward to joining Ralph in the heavenly choir as we continue to sing the praises of God forever.

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Saviour,
I come to Thee.

Editor’s note: I have found a recording of Mr. Hunter singing this very piece. Here it is: Ralph Hunter-I Need Thee Every Hour (mp3).

Today in 1850 – Fanny Crosby Converted

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Frances Jane (Fanny) Crosby was blind from infancy, due to a doctor’s mistreatment of an eye infection. But not only did her blindness not seem to hinder her, she actually came to view it in a positive light. She said:

It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.

Young Fanny Crosby

Miss Crosby, who later became Mrs. Alexander Van Alstyne, was the most prolific gospel song writer ever. The exact total of these selections may never be known, since she wrote under a bewildering array of pen names. (It is likely somewhere between 8,500 and 9,000 songs.)

Some hymn historians speak disdainfully of her output, saying most of it isn’t worth much. However, many of her songs have stood the test of time, and continue to appear in hymnals. (Often more of her songs are included than those of any other writer.) And it is still possible to discover lovely gems among the thousands that have not been recently published.

With that many songs to her credit, it may come as a surprise that Fanny was not converted until she was 30 years old, and did not begin writing hymns for another 14 years! (She had written poetry since childhood, and produced a number popular songs, but no hymns before 1864.) This means she had to average writing about four hymns each week from then on! And that is simply an average. Some weeks the total was several times that.

Fanny Crosby put her faith in Christ at a Methodist revival meeting, and it was a hymn that God used to awaken her heart to Him. The congregation was singing Isaac Watts’s Alas, and Did My Saviour Bleed?, and the last stanza says:

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away;
‘Tis all that I can do.

Fanny says as the last line was sung, “I surrendered myself to the Saviour, and my very soul was flooded with celestial light.” She was captivated by the love of Christ.

Then, when she was 44 years old, she met gospel music composer William Bradbury. (Bradbury gave us the tunes for Just As I Am, He Leadeth Me, Sweet Hour of Prayer, and many more.) He said, on meeting Fanny Crosby, “I thank God that we have at last met, for I think you can write hymns, and I have wished for a long time to have a talk with you.” He challenged her to come back in one week with a hymn he could set to music, and she did. Here is how Fanny Crosby’s very first hymn begins:

We are going, we are going
To a home beyond the skies,
Where the fields are robed in beauty
And the sunlight never dies.
Where the fount of joy is flowing
In the valley green and fair,
We shall dwell in love together,
There shall be no parting there.

William Bradbury was thrilled, and determined to use the song in the hymn book he was presently editing. Then, he gave Fanny a test–without telling her he was doing it. He said he needed a patriotic song to go with a melody he had written. The tune he played for her was a tricky and complicated one, but he wanted to see whether she could handle it.

Fanny returned a day later with the song requested, presenting it to Bradbury’s secretary. The latter responded in open-mouthed astonishment, “How in the world did you manage to write that hymn? Nobody ever supposed that you, or any mortal, could adapt words to that melody!” (The rest, as they say, is history!)

(2) Today in 1871 – Charles Weigle Born

Charles Frederick Weigle, a friend of Billy Sunday’s, was an itinerant gospel musician and evangelist, preaching here and there, as the Lord opened the door.

In researching his life, I came across a sermon he preached in 1903 called “The Three Hells.” (Eye-catching title!) The first was hell in the heart, about the sad state of a debauched life; the second was hell in the home, about sin-riddled disfunctional families; the third was hell in the hereafter, concerning the eternal judgment faced by all those outside of Christ.

As well as preaching, Charles Weigle wrote about a thousand gospel songs. One from 1903 is Living for Jesus (not to be confused with Thomas Chisholm’s song with the same title). Weigle’s hymn says:

Living for Jesus—O what peace!
Rivers of pleasure never cease.
Trials may come, yet I’ll not fear.
Living for Jesus, He is near.

Help me to serve Thee more and more.
Help me to praise Thee o’er and o’er;
Live in Thy presence day by day,
Never to turn from Thee away.

Living for Jesus—O what rest!
Pleasing my Saviour, I am blest.
Only to live for Him alone,
Doing His will till life is done!

Living for Jesus everywhere,
All of my burden He doth bear.
Friends may forsake me; He’ll be true.
Trusting in Him, He’ll guide me through.

Mr. Weigle had little of this world’s material things, but he believed what he was doing was of eternal worth. However, he returned home from one particular preaching mission to discover a devastating note from his wife of many years.

Charlie, I’ve been a fool. I’ve done without a lot of things long enough. From here on out, I’m getting all I can of what the world owes me. I know you’ll continue to be a fool for Jesus, but for me it’s goodbye!

She had taken their little daughter and moved to a distant city, seeking glamour and excitement. It was the darkest time of Weigle’s life. He was 61 years old and alone in the world. The temptation arose to commit suicide. He thought to himself, “Your work is finished. No one cares whether you’re dead or alive.”

But in his despair a Voice seemed to whisper in his soul, “Charlie, I haven’t forgotten you. Charlie, I care for you.” And he knelt down and asked the Lord’s forgiveness for not trusting Him. He took up his ministry again.

Meanwhile, in that distant place after less than five years of worldly pleasure, his wife lay dying. To someone at her bedside she said, “I wish I had my life to live over.” She told her daughter to try to find her father and “ask him to pray for me.” But word did not reach him in time.

Once again, in deep sorrow, Charles Weigle sought the comfort of the Lord, and he wrote a song as his personal testimony, called No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus.

I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus,
Since I found in Him a friend so strong and true;
I would tell you how He changed my life completely,
He did something that no other friend could do.

No one ever cared for me like Jesus,
There’s no other friend so kind as He.
No one else could take the sin and darkness from me.
Oh how much He cared for me.

Without trying to judge Mr. Weigle in particular, I do wonder about what’s behind this troubled time in his life. Is there another way of looking at it? Is there perhaps more to the story? I have put down some thoughts about this in a topical article called Doesn’t Ministry Begin at Home?.

(3) Today in 1872 – I Need Thee Every Hour sung

On this date in 1872, Annie Hawks’s hymn I Need Thee Every Hour was sung for the very first time by the 3,000 delegates at the National Baptist Sunday School Convention, in Cincinnati, Ohio. It became an instant favourite.

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Saviour,
I come to Thee.

Missing Verses

If you have a large library of hymnals, and books on hymn history, as I do, or if you check a well-researched Web site such as the Cyber Hymnal, you will discover that many of the hymns we know and love have additional stanzas that are seldom, if ever, printed in today’s hymn books.

The reasons for this are varied. Sometimes, the verses omitted are of relatively poor poetic quality, or they may express a doctrinal position that is questionable. Sometimes, it is a bow to contemporary culture–because most congregations today would be unwilling to sing eight or ten stanzas. (Often three or four seem to tax us!) Many times, however, it seems to be simply a matter of space and keeping hymn books from becoming unmanageably large.

That being said, there are some unsung treasures in the missing stanzas of our hymns. It is worthwhile doing a bit of research on this. And if you are a pastor, or worship leader, you may be able to print a missing stanza in the bulletin, occasionally, or include it on an overhead. It will be an added blessing for all who think they already know the hymn.

Following are a few examples.

Why, for instance, would editors omit this stanza of There Shall Be Showers of Blessing which contains a key principle of application:

There shall be showers of blessing,
If we but trust and obey;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
If we let God have His way.

There is a worshipful stanza of Fairest Lord Jesus that few hymn books include:

All fairest beauty, heavenly and earthly,
Wondrously, Jesus, is found in Thee;
None can be nearer, fairer or dearer,
Than Thou, my Saviour, art to me.

Several hymn books I’ve seen leave out the following insightful stanza of More Love to Thee. The author of the song, a bedridden invalid, could make this statement from personal experience, and it is reminiscent of the testimony of Paul that he could glory in his infirmities (II Cor. 12:7-10):

Let sorrow do its work, come grief or pain;
Sweet are Thy messengers, sweet their refrain,
When they can sing with me: More love, O Christ, to Thee;
More love to Thee, more love to Thee!

Several stanzas of the poem that became the popular hymn, How Great Thou Art, have not been used with the hymn. Here is one that I’ve found a blessing:

When burdens press, and seem beyond endurance,
Bowed down with grief, to Him I lift my face;
And then in love He brings me sweet assurance,
“My child, for thee, sufficient is My grace.”

And here is the concluding stanza of the carol, As With Gladness Men of Old, which takes us beyond the bounds of time into eternity:

In the heavenly country bright,
Need they no created light;
Thou its Light, its Joy, its Crown,
Thou its Sun which goes not down;
There forever may we sing
Alleluias to our King!

This is an often missing stanza of I Need Thee Every Hour:

I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises in me fulfil.

Being something of a traditionalist, I’m not always enthused by the modern trend to tamper with our old hymns. But from time to time I come across a change that seems helpful. Long ago, hymn writer Edward Bickersteth added this final stanza to Nearer, My God, to Thee:

There in my Father’s home, safe and at rest,
There in my Saviour’s love, perfectly blest;
Age after age to be, nearer my God to Thee.
Nearer, my God to Thee, nearer to Thee.

I encourage you to do some research of your own. You may be surprised and delighted by what you find!