Lyrics: ELizabeth P. Prentiss.
Music: William H. Doane.
Theme: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Mark 12:30.
Mrs. Prentiss: “To love Christ more, is the deepest need, the constant cry of my soul…Out in the woods and on my bed and out driving, when I am happy and busy, and when I am sad and idle, the whisper keeps going up for more love, more love, more love!â€
Hear thou the prayer I make on bended knee.
This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to thee;
more love to thee, more love to thee!
Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest;
now thee alone I seek, give what is best.
This all my prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to thee;
more love to thee, more love to thee!
Let sorrow do its work, come grief and pain;
sweet are thy messengers, sweet their refrain,
when they can sing with me: More love, O Christ, to thee;
more love to thee, more love to thee!
Then shall my latest breath whisper thy praise;
this be the parting cry my heart shall raise;
this still its prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to thee;
more love to thee, more love to thee!
Mrs Prentiss, who struggled with physical illness and tragedy for much of her life, wrote the devotional classic, Stepping Heavenward. I’ve always intended to read her book, but I’ve never done so. Have any of you read it?
Sources: Suite 101: Understanding More Love to Thee O Christ.
Osbeck, Kenneth. 101 More Hymn Stories.
I’ve read Stepping Heavenward and have her biography on my list of books to read.
Oh, yes. Stepping Heavenward is *wonderful* I’m right now reading a biography of Prentiss by Sharon James and it is pretty good (could have used some more editing, but is quite readable and encouraging my faith).
Thanks for posting “More Love to Thee,” a beautiful devotional hymn. (Today is the 131st anniversary of the death of Elizabeth Prentiss.) And thanks too for the link to “Stepping Heavenward.” The book is still considered a classic. Authors such as Joni Eareckson Tada, Elisabeth Elliot, and Kay Arthur, recommend it for girls to read today for the betterment of their spiritual lives.
You HAVE to read Stepping Heavenward! You will not regret it. It has been an enormous blessing to me, and our book club just read it, many of us are on our second or third time through–one of our members named her daughter “Prentiss” because of this book and the life of its author.
Absolutely love Elisabeth Prentiss’s “Stepping Heavenward”. Read it last June when our first grandchild died at one month of age from SIDS. It ministered and encouraged my spirit so much. I am reading it again now along with my Sunday School class ladies, they are loving it. It is such a pure read and a reminder that God never changes, our circumstances shift like the ocean tides, but He is our Anchor that never fails!