Sunday Hymn ~ My Jesus, I Love Thee

My Jesus, I Love Thee

William Featherston, 1864. Music: Adoniram Gordon, 1876

My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign.
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

I love Thee because Thou has first loved me,
And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree.
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,
And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;
And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow,
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I’ll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright;
I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

~~~

Whenever we sing this song, as we recently did in one of our Friday night devotional hymn times, I get a bit teary-eyed with memories of where I was singing this very song many years ago.

Back in 1977 when I was but a wee girl of 25, I traveled with a friend to Israel and visited the Holy Land. That is a story in itself, and I loved the trip!

After our ten-day tour of Jerusalem and surrounding cities, we were encouraged to go on the extended two-day tour of Rome and see, among many other places, Mamertine Prison where Paul was secluded.

In lieu of my own faded pictures, if you click on this link, you will see 9 photos showing Mamertine Prison from the outside (pictures 1 - 4), steps going down inside the underground prison (picture 5); and then you'll see a group of folks standing there in the small room where Paul was imprisoned (pictures 7 - 9). I traveled down those same narrow steep steps.

I stood in that dark, damp, dungeon.

I sang with the group, "If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now."

Long-ago memories.

~Deb

Comments

[Laura]

What a wonderful memory of a once in a lifetime moment singing and amazing song.

[Caroline]

Hi! Thanks for checking out my blog earlier! You know I enjoy yours. :-) I was glad to be able to "officially" meet you! :-)

~Caroline

[Lisa Spivey]

Thank you Deb, for sharing a beautiful hymn and your sweet memory.