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Words: , 1866.
Music: , Joyful Songs, Nos. 1 to 3 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Methodist Episcopal Book Room, 1869).
This is from a long poem on the life of Jesus that was written in 1866. It is in two parts. The first part is a poem of fifty stanzas, and is titled, “The Story Wanted,” being dated January 29, 1866. The second part is titled “The Story Told,” and is dated November 18, 1866. It is said that the author had a serious spell of sickness just before this poem was composed, and that she occupied the long days of convalescence in writing the poem. Certain verses were taken fro Part I. by Dr. W. H. Doane in 1867 to make the popular and familiar hymn beginning, “Tell me the old, old story,” for which he composed the familiar tune to which those words are commonly sung. From Part II. certain verses have been selected to make the above hymn, “I Love to Tell the Story,” the tune to which was composed by W. G. Fischer. This is one of the most popular of all modern hymns, and has been translated into several different languages. These and other hymns by the author have been published from time to time in different forms, sometimes accompanied by tunes composed by herself. Many of her hymns are found in a little volume which she published in 1870, titled Heart to Heart. Very few hymns written in the last fifty years have so taken hold of the hearts of the people, both the young and the old, as has this simple little song.
“Last winter a young man appeared here from British Columbia,” says a letter from Surrey, England. “He was in the Royal Marines. He was a total abstainer and was doing all he could to promote temperance among his comrades. While here he went to church, and the curate, who had a conversation with him, was much pleased with his manly behavior and resolute desire to do right. He wore a medal and had good conduct marks on his clothes. This man was the little boy whom Miss T. had picked up in Battersea Park many years before, and who had learned of the gospel of salvation entirely by listening to the maidservants singing sacred songs while scrubbing the doorsteps and cleaning windows. The hymn that, as a child, he seemed to make entirely his own was, ‘I love to tell the story,’ though he knew several others when he was picked up in the park. As he had never been to church or chapel, the hymns were the only channel through which divine truth had been conveyed to him, and by which the first seed was sown in his heart that made him a man of character and usefulness.”
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I love to tell the story of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love.
I love to tell the story, because I know ’tis true;
It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do.
Refrain
I love to tell the story, ’twill be my theme in glory,
To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.
I love to tell the story; more wonderful it seems
Than all the golden fancies of all our golden dreams.
I love to tell the story, it did so much for me;
And that is just the reason I tell it now to thee.
Refrain
I love to tell the story; ’tis pleasant to repeat
What seems, each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet.
I love to tell the story, for some have never heard
The message of salvation from God’s own holy Word.
Refrain
I love to tell the story, for those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.
And when, in scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song,
’Twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.
Refrain
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