Our Trust When Only Placed In Him

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” John 14:1

Let’s read this story by Ira Sankey the author of many hymns we sing.  He wrote this popular one we sing, Only Trust Him.  We sing this often as a closing hymn at church but am I listening to the words or just singing the verse?

While on the way to Eng­land with Mr. Moody in 1873, one day in mid-ocean, as I was look­ing ov­er a list of hymns in my scrap-book, I no­ticed one com­menc­ing, Come ev­ery soul by sin op­pressed…

Come, eve­ry soul by sin op­pressed;
There’s mer­cy with the Lord,
And He will sure­ly give you rest
By trust­ing in His Word.

Believing that these words had been so oft­en sung that they were hack­neyed, I de­cid­ed to change them and tell how to come to Je­sus by sub­st­itu­ting the words, On­ly trust him. In this form it was first pub­lished in “Sac­red Songs and So­los” in Lon­don.

Yes, Je­sus is the truth, the way,
That leads you into rest;
Believe in Him with­out de­lay
And you are ful­ly blessed.

While hold­ing meet­ings in Her Ma­jes­ty’s The­ater in Pall Mall, Lond­on, and sing­ing this hymn, I thought I would change the chor­us again, and asked the peo­ple to sing I will trust Him…

Come, then, and join this ho­ly band,
And on to glo­ry go
To dwell in that ce­les­ti­al land
Where joys im­mor­tal flow.

When as we sang I de­cid­ed to change it once more, and asked them to sing I do trust him. God bless­ed this ren­der­ing of the hymn to eight per­sons pre­sent, who tes­ti­fied af­ter­ward that by the change they were led to ac­cept sa­lv­ation.

Only trust Him, on­ly trust Him,
Only trust Him now;
He will save you, He will save you,
He will save you now.

Isn’t that a great story from the author of this beautiful song?  And just to encourage us even more, here is the last verse that we don’t usually have in our hymnal. Such a beautiful song with beautiful words.  Sing them today and stay encouraged that whatever you are facing you can trust HIM!

O Je­sus, bless­èd Je­sus, dear,
I’m com­ing now to Thee;
Since Thou hast made the way so clear
And full sal­va­tion free.

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“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28