By Faith Macomber
The author for this song Anna Bartlett Warner was born in Long Island, New York, on August 31, 1827. Anna was the daughter of Henry W. Warner a New York lawyer. When Anna’s father lost most of his fortune, Anna, her older sister Susan and father Henry were forced to move to their summer home “Good Craig” on Constitution Island, near the United States Military Academy at West Point. Anna and her sister taught Sunday School Classes to the cadets at West Point for many years.
Anna also wrote the well known song Jesus Loves Me, it is one of the first songs that they teach new converts. Missionaries all over the world talk about it, and it has been used in several religions. There was a group of Buddhist in the temple singing this: “Yes, Buddha loves me, Yes, Buddha loves me…”
Anna died January 22, 1915, in Highland Falls, New York, at the age ninety-five, and was buried with military honors. On her tombstone is these words:
We would see Jesus, the great rock Foundation
Whereon our feet were set with sovereign grace;
Nor life nor death, with all their agitation,
Can thence remove us, if we see His face.
The composer for this song Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was born February 3, 1809, in Germany, and died November 4, 1847 in Germany. His father is Abraham Mendelssohn, a Jewish banker, Felix is grandson of Moses Mendelssohn. Felix had one brother and two sisters. Their mother taught them their first music training.
After the family moved to Berlin in 1811 during the French occupation of Hamburg, the family was baptized in the Lutheran church, Abraham Mendelssohn added Bartholdy to their name to indicate they were Christians.
At the age nine he gave his first public performance as a pianist, by the age twelve he has composed many works, including five symphonies. J. S. Bach’s music became a great influence in his life. Felix left a large number of musical works: Symphonies, overtures, chamber music, concertos, organ and piano works, vocal music, and two oratories, St. Paul, and Elijah.
Sources:
Information on Mendelssohn: William J. Reynolds Companion to Baptist Hymnal (Broadman Press Nashville, Tennessee. 1976), p. 379.
Information on Warner: William J. Reynolds Companion to Baptist Hymnal (Broadman Press Nashville, Tennessee. 1976), p. 453.
Sir Donald Francis Tovey “Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Jakob Ludwig Felix” Harry Ashmore, Editor in Chief. Encyclopaedia Britannica (Chicago: Encyclodaedia Britannica, Inc. 1961), vol. 15, pp. 243-244.
Information on Anna Warner: Osbeck, K. W. 101 hymn stories (Grands Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications, 1982), p. 135
