Blessèd Redeemer

Isaiah 60:16 …I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer…

1 Timothy 1:15 …Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…

“Blessed Redeemer” is an interesting hymn that began with the tune first, then the words later. This is the reverse of the creation of most hymns (words first, then music). Henry Dixon Loes wrote a piece of music after listening to a sermon on the “Blessed Redeemer.” He gave the music to poetess Avis B. Christiansen, suggesting “Blessed Redeemer” as the theme. For this music she wrote the three stanzas and refrain below.

The hymn highlights the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. It describes Christ taking on the task of saving sinners – seeking their good without regard to his own, “blind and unheeding” to the cost to himself.  The last stanza exults in the believers’ loving response of eternal joyful appreciative praise. 

1. Up Calv’ry's mountain one dreadful morn,
 Walked Christ my Saviour, weary and worn;
 Facing for sinners death on the cross,
 That he might save them from endless loss.
 
Refrain:
Blessed Redeemer! precious Redeemer!
Seems now I see him on Calvary’s tree;
Wounded and bleeding, for sinners pleading—
Blind and unheeding—dying for me!
 
2. “Father, forgive them;” thus did he pray,
E’en while his lifeblood flowed fast away;
Praying for sinners while in such woe—
No one but Jesus ever loved so. [Refrain]

3. O how I love him, Saviour and friend,
How can my praises ever find end;
Through years unnumbered on heaven’s shore
My tongue shall praise him for evermore. [Refrain]

The composer of the music, Harry Dixon Loes (1892-1965), was a long-time music teacher on the faculty of Moody Bible Institute.

Avis Marguerite Burgeson was born October 11, 1895, in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Andrew Burgeson (1868-1935) and Matilda Anderson (1872-1946). Avis attended the Moody Church. She married Ernest Christiansen in 1917. He would later become a vice president of Moody Bible Institute. Avis Christiansen wrote many Christian hymns, sometimes under her own and sometimes under pen names: Avis Burgesson, Christian B. Anson and Constance B. Reid. She began writing poems while still a child, encouraged in the endeavour by her grandmother. She died January 14, 1985. Avis and Ernest are buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie, Cook County, Illinois.

Concerning her writing Avis Christiansen said: “I have been able, by His infinite grace, to pour out my soul in hundreds of songs of praise to my blessed Redeemer. He speaks through the commonplace things of life, if we are but listening for His gentle voice.”