Hymn of the week - 04

Have you ever wondered how hymns became hymns?? Well I was going through a childhood favourite today (in Portuguese) and just by curiosity decided to read a bit about it in nethymnal. Here is how this encouraging verses have become a hymn:

During a cam­paign in To­ron­to, Ca­na­da, young con­vert with whom I was deal­ing ex­pressed the fear that he would not be able to “hold out.” A day or two lat­er in a let­ter to Miss Ada Ha­ber­shon, of Lon­don, I men­tioned the need for a song which would give def­in­ite as­sur­ance of suc­cess in the Christ­ian life. The weeks passed and a cou­ple of months lat­er dur­ing a great cam­paign in Phil­a­del­phia, U.S.A., I re­ceived a batch of sev­en new songs writ­ten by Miss Ha­ber­shon. As Dr. Tor­rey preached his ser­mon one af­ter­noon (in­stead of list­en­ing!) I oc­cu­pied the time in set­ting the sev­en lyr­ics to mu­sic. One of these was “He will hold me fast.” The same ev­en­ing it was in­tro­duced by Chas. M. Al­ex­an­der to an au­dience of 4,000 peo­ple. Its suc­cess was im­me­di­a­te, and it has con­tin­ued to be a great fa­vour­ite. It has been trans­lat­ed in­to ma­ny lang­uag­es.

Robert Harkness

I suppose quite often we wonder if we will be able to get to the Celestial City ( sorry for Bunyan's allusion, I have no better  ) , it is comforting to remember that HE that began a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil 1:6).
ps: Cristo  Valerá is the title of the hymn in Portuguese.

He will Hold me fast - Cristo  Valerá

When I fear my faith will fail,

Christ will hold me fast;

When the tempter would prevail,

He can hold me fast.

He will hold me fast,

He will hold me fast;

For my Savior loves me so,

He will hold me fast.

I could never keep my hold,

He will hold me fast;

For my love is often cold,

He must hold me fast.

I am precious in His sight,

He will hold me fast;

Those He saves are His delight.

He will hold me fast.

He’ll not let my soul be lost,

Christ will hold me fast;

Bought by Him at such a cost,

He will hold me fast.

Ada Ruth Habershon 1861-1918

Cristo  Valerá

 Oscilando minha fé, 
Cristo valerá; 
perseguido, sem mercê, 
Ele valerá. 

 Ele valerá!
Ele valerá!
seu amor por mim não muda,
sim me valerá.

 Crente inútil eu serei 
se me não valer. 
Nem serviço prestarei 
sem o seu poder. 

Com seu sangue me comprou, 
não me deixará. 
Vida eterna me outorgou, 
sim me valerá. 

Adapt. Salomon Luiz Ginsburg (1867 - 1927)