Jesus Loves Me

Words by Anna B. Warner Music by William B. Bradbury

"Jesus loves me! this I know,
For the Bible tells me so.”

The Rev. Dr. Jacob Chamberlain, who for many years has been working among the Hindus, writes as follows regarding this hymn, long one of the most popular children's songs in the world: ”Many years ago I translated into Telugu the children's hymn, ' Jesus loves me' and taught it to the children of our day-school. Scarcely a week later, as I was going through the narrow streets of the native town on horseback, I heard singing that sounded natural, down a side street. I stopped to. listen, cautiously drawing up to the corner, where unobserved I could look down the street and see and hear. And there was a little heathen boy, with heathen men and women standing around him, singing away at the top of his voice:

'Jesus loves me! this I know,

For the Bible tells me so . . .
Yes, Jesus loves me !
The Bible tells me so!'

As he completed the verse some one asked the question: ' Sonny, where did you learn that song?' ' Over at the Missionary School,' was the answer. ' Who is that Jesus, and what is the Bible?' ' Oh! the Bible is the book from God, they say, to teach us how to get to heaven, and Jesus is the name of the divine Redeemer that came into the world to save us from our sins; that is what the missionaries say.' ' Well, the song is a nice one. Come, sing us some more.' And so the little boy went on—a heathen himself, and singing to the heathen—about Jesus and his love. ' That is preaching the Gospel by proxy,' I said to myself, as I turned my pony and rode away, well satisfied to leave my little proxy to tell his interested audience all he himself knew, and sing to them over and over that sweet song of salvation."