Before the Throne of God Above

Back in 2013, I posted the hymn “Before the Throne of God Above” by Charitie Lees Bancroft, but did not give any information about it.

The author, Charitie Lees Smith Bancroft (1841-1923), was the daughter of Charlotte Lees and George Sidney Smith, an Anglican rector in Ireland, as well as professor at Trinity College in Dublin. She was born June 21,1841 in the county of Dublin, Ireland. She married Arthur E. Bancroft in 1869. Sometime afterward they came to the United. States. In 1880, they were living in Clarke County, Virginia. They returned to the UK, where her husband died in 1881. Charitie returned to the US around 1884, settling in California near her brother George. She married Frank DeCheney in 1891. Charitie Smith Bancroft DeCheney died in Oakland, California January 20, 1923, at age 81, and is buried in Oakland’s Mountain View Cemetery.

 

According to John Julian (Dictionary of Hymnology), Charitie Lees Smith’s hymns were collected and published as Within the Vail and Other Sacred Poems in 1867. This appears as the first hymn, titled “Within the Vail” and referencing Hebrews 6:19-20 … which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast…

 

“Before the Throne of God Above” is dated 1863 in Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle Our Own Hymn-Book. It speaks of the security and assurance of salvation found in the work of Christ and the accompanying joy of salvation – “Because the sinless Saviour died, my sinful soul is counted free! We are secured by his divine provision on the cross and the fact that he ever lives to make intercession for us.

 

1. Before the throne of God above

I have a strong, a perfect plea;

A great High Priest, whose name is Love,

Who ever lives and pleads for me.

 

2. My name is graven on his hands,

My name is written on His heart;

I know that, while in heaven He stands

No tongue can bid me thence depart.

 

3. When Satan tempts me to despair,

And tells me of the guilt within,

Upward I look, and see Him there

Who made an end of all my sin.

 

4. Because the sinless Saviour died,

My sinful soul is counted free;

For God, the Just, is satisfied

To look on Him and pardon me.

 

5. Behold Him there! the bleeding Lamb!

My perfect, spotless Righteousness,

The great unchangeable ‘I am,’

The King of glory and of grace.

 

6. One with himself, I cannot die;

My soul is purchased by His blood;

My life is hid with Christ on high,

With Christ my Saviour and my God.

See also:
Hymnary.org
Hymnology Archive

Oakland Tribune, Sunday, January 21, 1923, p. 7-X