It was in 1819 that a royal letter was sent to all congregations of the Church of England authorizing a money collection to be taken to give aid to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Lands. It was the father-in-law of one Reginald Heber who had asked him to preach at his Sunday evening church service. When the letter came, Heber was also asked to write a hymn that would be appropriate for that special collection. Heber went off to a room by himself for twenty minutes. He then returned to offer three stanzas to his father-in-law. Heber insisted on writing a fourth stanza in order that a grand ending would complete the hymn.
When he wrote the hymn, Heber did not know that India did not have coral strands. He also did not realize that he would
soon be appointed as bishop of Calcutta, India. It was there that he would later die. The church was just getting the wake-up call to the missionary challenge when Heber wrote the words to this hymn. In generations to come Christians have been powerfully reminded that Matthew 28:18-20 applies to every age, even to the end of the age. It is this same missionary challenge that drives JILM. This age-old hymn will always keep us mindful of our church’s mission.
From Greenland’s icy mountains, from India’s coral strand;
Where Afric’s sunny fountains roll down their golden sand:
From many an ancient river, from many a palmy plain,
They call us to deliver their land from error’s chain.
What though the spicy breezes blow soft o’er Ceylon’s isle;
Though every prospect pleases, and only man is vile?
In vain with lavish kindness the gifts of God are strown;
The heathen in his blindness bows down to wood and stone.
Shall we, whose souls are lighted with wisdom from on high,
Shall we to those benighted the lamp of life deny?
Salvation! O salvation! The joyful sound proclaim,
Till earth’s remotest nation has learned Messiah’s Name.
Waft, waft, ye winds, His story, and you, ye waters, roll
Till, like a sea of glory, it spreads from pole to pole:
Till o’er our ransomed nature the Lamb for sinners slain,
Redeemer, King, Creator, in bliss returns to reign.
