JESUS PAID IT ALL

(Part of a monthly series on inspiring hymn stories.) Elvina Mable Hall was 45 years old and a bit bored as she sat in the choir loft one spring Sunday in 1865. According to one researcher, the pastor prayed much too long. According to another, her mind wandered during his sermon. Whatever it was that Sunday at the Monument Street Methodist Church in Baltimore, Elvina picked up the hymnal and in its flyleaf scribbled a poem that came to her. The four verses began:

I hear my Savior say/Thy strength indeed is small,

Child of weakness, watch and pray,/find in me thine all in all.

When the service ended, and everyone else had left the church, she came up to the pastor and apologetically admitted her mind had wandered. But here was a poem she had written. Would he like to see it?

The pastor turned out to be the matchmaker of lyrics and hymn tune. In his files was a tune written by the church's choir director, a man named John Grape. In “real life” Grape was a coal merchant. But he dabbled in music, as he liked to say. Ira Sankey (known as a song leader for D.L. Moody), in a later book about hymns, reported Grape as saying:

Our church was undergoing some alterations and the cabinet organ was placed in my care. Thus afforded a pleasure not before enjoyed, I delighted myself in playing over our Sunday school hymns. I was determined to give tangible shape to a theme that had been running in my mind for some time—to write...an answer to Mr. Bradbury's beautiful piece, “Jesus Paid it All.” I made it a matter of prayer and study, and gave to the public the music, now known as the tune to “All to Christ I owe.” It was pronounced by poor by my choir and my friends, but my dear wife persistently declared it was a good piece of music and would live. Time has proven the correctness of her judgment.

Remarkably, Elvina's poem and Grape's earlier tune and chorus lyrics were a good fit. The hymn was published three years later, in 1868, in a collection titled “Sabbath Chords.”

How fitting that this marriage of words and tune could come about through an “introduction in church.” It's a meaningful hymn for any time we need the reminder of the cost of our salvation.

For listening or singing along;

This gentle solo version has a country-music-style accompaniment (skip short ad to get to video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9DUKhFhD74

This contemporary rendition, with a more driven tempo at the end, has splendid photography to support the hymn's words:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=%22jESUS+PAID+IT+ALL%22&view=detail&mid=46A71D1306A94E4AAAA446A71D1306A94E4AAAA4&FORM=VIRE0&ru=%2fsearch%3fq%3d%2522jESUS%2bPAID%2bIT%2bALL%2522%26form%3dANSPH1%26refig%3d8a2204490f2a40a9b334acba6db1d33b%26pc%3dU531%26sp%3d-1%26pq%3d%2522jesus%2bpaid%2bit%2ball%2522%26sc%3d8-19%26qs%3dn%26sk%3d%26cvid%3d8a2204490f2a40a9b334acba6db1d33b