By Elizabeth Macomber
This hymn is also know as ‘Down at the Cross.’
Elisha Hoffman was born on May 7th, 1839, in Pennsylvania. His father was a minister, and Elisha followed Christ at a young age. His education was in the public school system in his younger years. Later he attended and graduated from the Union Seminary located in New Berlin, Pennsylvania. Hoffman was ordained to the gospel ministry in 1868 and served as publisher for the evangelical Association in Cleveland, Ohio for eleven years. He pastored in Cleveland and Grafton, Ohio, in the eighteen hundreds. He also pastured in Michigan and Illinois. Then, following the death of his young wife, he returned to Pennsylvania and devoted 33 years to pastoring Benton Harbor Presbyterian Church. In his lifetime, he edited fifty songbooks and wrote over two thousand Gospel songs.
Some of the hymns he wrote are:
- I Must Tell Jesus
- What A Wonderful Savior
- Are You Washed in the Blood?
- Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
- Is Your All On The Altar?
John Hart Stockton, the composer of this hymn, was born in New Hope, PA, on April 19, 1813. He was born a Presbyterian, but was converted to Methodism in the summer of 1832 at the age of 19. He was ordained as a Methodist minister, and made a full member of the New Jersey Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1857. In 1874, because of poor health, he retired from the active ministry, but continued an active interest in evangelical work. He assisted in the Moody-Sankey meetings in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
John Hart Stockton died on March 25th, 1877.
Some of the hymns he wrote and composed are:
- Take Me As I Am
- Only Trust Him
- The Great Physician
Sources
Forrest M. McCann, Hymns and History. (ACU Press; Abilene, TX, 1997) pp. 426, 524
Morgan, Robert J. On This Day. (electronic ed., Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000, c1997) May 7.
