Traditional Hymns
Christ for the World We Sing
Christ for the World We Sing
Listen to:
Christ for the World We Sing Piano (.mp3)
Christ for the World We Sing (.midi)
Christ for the World We Sing (.mp3)
Christ for the World We Sing Bells Version (.mp3)
1. Christ for the world we sing, the world to Christ we bring, with loving zeal; the poor, and them that mourn, the faint and overborne, sinsick and sorrow-worn, whom Christ doth heal.
2. Christ for the world we sing, the world to Christ we bring, with fervent prayer; the wayward and the lost, by restless passions tossed, redeemed at countless cost, from dark despair.
3. Christ for the world we sing, the world to Christ we bring, with one accord; with us the work to share, with us reproach to dare, with us the cross to bear, for Christ our Lord.
4. Christ for the world we sing, the world to Christ we bring, with joyful song; the newborn souls, whose days, reclaimed from error's ways, inspired with hope and praise, to Christ belong.
Story of the hymn Christ for the World We Sing
Samuel Wolcott (1813–1886) was an American Congregational minister born in South Windsor, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale College in 1833 and Andover Theological Seminary in 1837. From 1840 to 1842, he served as a missionary in Syria, but poor health forced his return to the United States. He then pastored several churches, including in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Chicago, and finally Plymouth Congregational Church in Cleveland, Ohio. Wolcott was also involved in home missions, serving as secretary of the Ohio Home Missionary Society, and was a staunch abolitionist during the Civil War era.Though Wolcott began writing hymns late in life—at age 55—he composed over 200 before his death. His most famous, "Christ for the World We Sing", was his first major effort and originated in a moment of sudden inspiration.
On February 7, 1869, the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) of Ohio held a convention in Cleveland. The meeting took place in a church (likely Wolcott's Plymouth Congregational), with the YMCA's motto displayed prominently in evergreen letters above the pulpit: "Christ for the World, and the World for Christ."
Wolcott, then 55 and attending the service, was deeply moved by the motto and the missionary zeal expressed throughout the meeting. As he walked home alone through the streets that evening, the words of the hymn came to him. He later recalled: "It was on my way home from this service in 1869, walking alone through the streets, that I put together the four stanzas of the hymn."
