220. Savior, thy dying love
Sylvanus D. Phelps, 1816-95
Phelps gave this hymn to be published in Pure Gold, a Sunday school songbook which Robert Lowry, composer of music, was then editing and of which more than a million copies were sold. The hymn was given the heading, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6.)
Sylvanus Dryden Phelps, Baptist minister, was born in Suffolk, Conn.; received his education at Brown University; and in 1846 became pastor of the First Baptist Church, New Haven, Conn., where he remained for 28 years. He published three volumes of poetry. His son, William Lyon Phelps, was the distinguished Professor of English Literature at Yale and a lay preacher.
MUSIC. SOMETHING FOR JESUS was written for this hymn. At the time he composed this tune, Lowry was pastor of a Baptist Church in Lewisburg, Pa., and Professor of Literature in Bucknell University.
For further comments on Robert Lowry see [Hymn 187].