All that I was, my sin, my guilt. H. Bonar. [Pardon through Grace.] First published in the Bible Hymn Book, of which Dr. Bonar was editor, 1845, No. 219, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines and based upon 1 Cor. xv. 10, "By the grace of God I am what I am." It was repeated in subsequent editions of the Bible Hymn Book, and again in the author's Hymns of Faith and Hope, 1st series, 1857, and later editions, with the title "Mine and Thine." Its use, both in Great Britain and America, is somewhat extensive, and usually the text is unaltered, as in Stevenson's Hymns for Church and Home, 1873. The line, stanza 4, 1. 2, "Bade me in Christ believe," in Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858 and 1880, and the New Congregational Hymn Book, 1859, is from the former collection. The doxology as in Kennedy, 1863, is not in the original.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Horatius Bonar was born at Edinburgh, in 1808. His education was obtained at the High School, and the University of his native city. He was ordained to the ministry, in 1837, and since then has been pastor at Kelso. In 1843, he joined the Free Church of Scotland. His reputation as a religious writer was first gained on the publication of the "Kelso Tracts," of which he was the author. He has also written many other prose works, some of which have had a very large circulation. Nor is he less favorably known as a religious poet and hymn-writer. The three series of "Hymns of Faith and Hope," have passed through several editions.
--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872… Go to person page >
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