First published in ”Hymns and Sacred Poems” in 1740, this hymn has been set to a number of tunes. But the most popular one in America is the melody arranged from Stevenson, with the chorus, ”God is love! I know, I feel; Jesus lives and loves me still.”
Words by Thomas Ken, 1695 Mimic by Wilhelm Frank
On the night of October 15, 1884, a great crowd was gathered on the street outside a Republican headquarters in New York City, awaiting the returns of an important election. It was two o'clock in the morning before the last bulletin was posted. Previous to this announcement a thousand voices had been singing uproariously, ”We won't go home till morning;” but the moment the message was displayed the stereopticon flashed out the line, ”Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Good night.” The Tribune, in reporting the incident, said: ”A deep-voiced man in the throng pitched the doxology, and a mighty volume of song swelled upward. Then the lights went out and the happy watchers departed to their homes."
A child on the top of Mount Washington was with her father above the clouds, while a thunder-storm flashed and rumbled below. Where they stood all was perfect calm and sunshine, though the eye found nothing but the blue of heaven and a few rocks to rest on. *' Well, Lucy, ”said her father,” there is nothing to be seen here, is there? ”But the child exclaimed: ”Oh, papa, I see the doxology! All around seems to say,
'Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.'"
The doxology was a great solace to the starving ”boys in blue” in Libby prison. Day after day they saw some of their comrades passing away, while fresh, living recruits for the grave arrived. Late one night they heard through the stillness and the darkness the tramp of new arrivals, who were stopped outside the prison door until arrangement could be made for them within. In the company was a young Baptist minister, whose heart almost fainted as he looked on those cold walls and thought of the suffering inside. Tired and weary, he sat down, put his face in his hands and wept. Just then a lone voice of deep, sweet pathos, sang from an upper window:
“Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;"
a dozen more voices joined in the second line; and so on till the prison was all alive and seemed to quiver with the sacred song. As the song died away in the stillness of the night, the young man arose and said:
"Prisons would palaces prove,
If Jesus would dwell with me there.”
This doxology has been almost universally adopted as a praise hymn by all churches. Wilhelm Frank, the composer of the tune, ”Old Hundred,” was a German.
The first Moody and Sankey meeting held in the Agricultural Hall, London, was opened by the singing of ”Praise God, from whom all blessings flow."
Doxology
Words by Thomas Ken, 1695 Mimic by Wilhelm Frank
"Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.”
Praise Him, all creatures here below.”
A child on the top of Mount Washington was with her father above the clouds, while a thunder-storm flashed and rumbled below. Where they stood all was perfect calm and sunshine, though the eye found nothing but the blue of heaven and a few rocks to rest on. *' Well, Lucy, ”said her father,” there is nothing to be seen here, is there? ”But the child exclaimed: ”Oh, papa, I see the doxology! All around seems to say,
'Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.'"
The doxology was a great solace to the starving ”boys in blue” in Libby prison. Day after day they saw some of their comrades passing away, while fresh, living recruits for the grave arrived. Late one night they heard through the stillness and the darkness the tramp of new arrivals, who were stopped outside the prison door until arrangement could be made for them within. In the company was a young Baptist minister, whose heart almost fainted as he looked on those cold walls and thought of the suffering inside. Tired and weary, he sat down, put his face in his hands and wept. Just then a lone voice of deep, sweet pathos, sang from an upper window:
If Jesus would dwell with me there.”
The first Moody and Sankey meeting held in the Agricultural Hall, London, was opened by the singing of ”Praise God, from whom all blessings flow."