Nelson Bradford
26th June 2006, 06:13 AM (06:13)
Grant C. Tullar was a traveling evangelist in the Methodist Episcopal church at the turn of the 20th century. In 1899 he was assisting in a series of meetings at the Rutherford, NJ M.E. church. At the evening meal in the parsonage, the pastor's wife passed him what was left of his favorite dessert and told him to finish it off. He started to help himself and said, "So this is all for me, is it?"
At that moment, the phrase "all for me" hit his mind with such impact that he left the table without finishing the dessert, went to the piano and wrote a melody for these words, "All for me the Savior suffered, all for me He bled and died." He completed the verses and the pastor asked him to sing it in the evening service. After church they discussed the new song and agreed that some of the words needed reworking. This was never done because in the next day's mail Tullar received some poems from Carrie Breck, a friend of his. As he began to read the first one he discovered that it fit the music exactly to the song he had written the night before. An interesting side note is that Mrs. Breck could not carry a tune and had no natural sense of pitch, but did have a keen sense of rhythm and loved music.
A few years after it was published, God used today's song to spare the lives of a missionary couple in China. Terrorists had taken them captive, led them to a lonely spot on a hill and told them that this would be the place of their death. When the executioner raised his long knife to slay them the couple began singing this song. When he heard, the man lowered his knife and released the couple. They returned to Shanghai and told the story many times. And what was Grant Tullar's and Carrie Breck's "accidental" collaboration that God used to save the missionaries?
(Commentary by J. D. Sherrow)
Face to face with Christ, my Savior,
Face to face—what will it be,
When with rapture I behold Him,
Jesus Christ Who died for me?
Refrain
Face to face I shall behold Him,
Far beyond the starry sky;
Face to face in all His glory,
I shall see Him by and by!
Verse 2
Only faintly now I see Him,
With the darkened veil between,
But a blessed day is coming,
When His glory shall be seen.
Verse 3
What rejoicing in His presence,
When are banished grief and pain;
When the crooked ways are straightened,
And the dark things shall be plain.
Verse 4
Face to face—oh, blissful moment!
Face to face—to see and know;
Face to face with my Redeemer,
Jesus Christ Who loves me so.
- Carrie E. Breck, 1898
Copyright © 1993 by Lillenas Publishing Co.
At that moment, the phrase "all for me" hit his mind with such impact that he left the table without finishing the dessert, went to the piano and wrote a melody for these words, "All for me the Savior suffered, all for me He bled and died." He completed the verses and the pastor asked him to sing it in the evening service. After church they discussed the new song and agreed that some of the words needed reworking. This was never done because in the next day's mail Tullar received some poems from Carrie Breck, a friend of his. As he began to read the first one he discovered that it fit the music exactly to the song he had written the night before. An interesting side note is that Mrs. Breck could not carry a tune and had no natural sense of pitch, but did have a keen sense of rhythm and loved music.
A few years after it was published, God used today's song to spare the lives of a missionary couple in China. Terrorists had taken them captive, led them to a lonely spot on a hill and told them that this would be the place of their death. When the executioner raised his long knife to slay them the couple began singing this song. When he heard, the man lowered his knife and released the couple. They returned to Shanghai and told the story many times. And what was Grant Tullar's and Carrie Breck's "accidental" collaboration that God used to save the missionaries?
(Commentary by J. D. Sherrow)
Face to face with Christ, my Savior,
Face to face—what will it be,
When with rapture I behold Him,
Jesus Christ Who died for me?
Refrain
Face to face I shall behold Him,
Far beyond the starry sky;
Face to face in all His glory,
I shall see Him by and by!
Verse 2
Only faintly now I see Him,
With the darkened veil between,
But a blessed day is coming,
When His glory shall be seen.
Verse 3
What rejoicing in His presence,
When are banished grief and pain;
When the crooked ways are straightened,
And the dark things shall be plain.
Verse 4
Face to face—oh, blissful moment!
Face to face—to see and know;
Face to face with my Redeemer,
Jesus Christ Who loves me so.
- Carrie E. Breck, 1898
Copyright © 1993 by Lillenas Publishing Co.