My Jesus, I Love Thee

“We love him because he first loved us.” I John iv. 19.

Baptist pastor Adoniram Judson Gordon is the composer of the well-known tune for the hymn “My Jesus, I love thee.” He found the hymn (uncredited) in the “London Hymn Book” (The London Hymn Book for Prayer Meetings and Special Services, edited by Charles Russell Hurditch. was first published around 1864). Gordon wrote a tune for it, which was first published in The Vestry Hymn and Tune Book (A. J. Gordon, editor. Boston, MA: Henry A. Young and Co., 1872). It is Hymn 562 (four stanzas, as in the “London Hymn Book”) on page 284. The original hymn (see below) had six stanzas. The hymn and tune are in 11s. meter. Gordon titled the song “My Jesus, I Love Thee.” In modern times the tune has been designated the name Gordon, after the composer.

Gordon was born in New Hampshire in 1836, and died in 1895 at age 58. He is buried at the Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Suffolk County, Massachusetts.

1. My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine;
For thee all the pleasure [follies] of sin I resign;
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou;
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, it’s [’tis] now.

2. I love thee because thou hast first loved me,
And purchased my pardon when nailed to the tree [on Calvary’s tree];
I love thee for bleeding on Calvary’s brow:
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, it’s now.

3. I love thee because thou hast saved me from hell—
How dearly I love thee my tongue cannot tell;
I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow;
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, it’s now.

4. I love thee for pardon, I love thee for peace,
And sweet hope of heaven thy Spirit conveys,
For it gladdens my heart as onward I go;
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, it’s now.

5. May I love thee in life, may I 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, it’s now.”

6. In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I will ever adore thee in regions of light;
I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow,
“If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, it’s now.”

The six stanzas of this hymn appear to have first appeared, uncredited, in February 1862 in The Christian Pioneer. The Pioneer was edited by Joseph Foulkes Winks. It borrows some lines and thoughts from the hymn “O Jesus my Savior, I know though art mine,” written by Kentucky evangelist Caleb Jarvis Taylor (and published in 1804 in Spiritual Songs). For example:

“…I know thou art mine, For thee all the pleasures of sin I resign”

The hymn has at times been attributed to William Ralph Featherston. However, this has not been substantiated and seems unlikely. In 1862, Featherston would have been only about 12 years old.