Born in a log cabin in Kentucky, Thomas Chisholm began as a school teacher at age 16, although he himself had no high school or college education.

He accepted Christ at age 27 at a revival meeting held by Frank Morrison, and became the editor of the "Pentecostal Herald".

A Methodist minister for a few years, he had to resign due to poor health. Thomas Chisholm lived in Winona Lake, Vineland and Ocean Grove, New Jersey. He wrote more than 1200 poems; in 1923 sent several to William Runyan (the composer of this hymn tune) who later wrote, "This particular poem held such an appeal that I prayed most earnestly that my tune might carry over its message in a worthy way, and the subsequent history of its use indicates that God answered prayer." (Osbeck 119)

This hymn was first introduced in Great Britain in 1954 by the Billy Graham Crusades.