Browse Authors
The authors of this collection of poems came from all around the globe. From the 17th century to the present, they lived and served in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. Some were born into wealth, while others emerge from lowly estate—but they all possessed a consuming love for Christ!
In Him, they saw One Who was so beautiful, so rich, and so all-sufficient, they willingly and literally spent everything they had—even their lives—for they Lord they so loved. They read the Bible and prayed. They proclaimed Christ to the masses, yet tenderly cared for each one they touched Their lives, and these poems, were forged in the crucible of human sufferings, yet they rise in one joyous, harmonic voice in proclamation of their dear Lord and Savior.
SELECT ONE OF THE LETTERS BELOW TO BROWSE FOR AN AUTHOR ALPHABETICALLY
Albert Benjamin Simpson
1843 - 1919
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Albert Benjamin Simpson was born to James and Jane Simpson on Prince Edward Island on a cold December day in 1843. As a young boy, Simpson had to overcome serious health problems to obtain an education; nevertheless, he eventually graduated from Knox College, Toronto, in 1865. He became a Presbyterian minister and served congregations in Ontario, Kentucky, and New York. He and his wife, Margaret, had six children.
While in New York, Simpson’s overwhelming burden to preach the gospel led him to resign from his pastoral position ...
Anne Ross Cousin
1824 - 1906
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Anne Ross Cundell Cousin was born in England, the only daughter of Ann and David Ross Cundell. Dr. Cundell was a surgeon who served at the Battle of Waterloo. He died when Anne was three, whereupon she and her mother resettled in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1847, Anne married William Cousin, a Scottish minister in Chelsea, London. They moved back to Scotland where their five children were born.
Around 1856, Mrs. Cousin was meditating on the letters of Samuel Rutherford, a Scottish Covenanter of the 1600s. While sewing, she would sc...
Charles Wesley
1707 - 1788
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Charles Wesley was born almost a month premature. His parents looked at his little motionless body and thought he was stillborn. Miraculously, he survived to become one of the most influential Christian leaders of the 18th Century.
While studying at Oxford, Charles and his brother John started the "Holy Club" to give themselves to Bible study, prayer, and visitation. Later, both brothers acknowledged that, at that time, they lacked a personal faith in Christ's saving grace.
However, being humbled by a failed missionary trip ...
Clara Tear Williams
1858 - 1937
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"Satisfied"
Clara Tear Williams was born near Painesville, Ohio, and grew up on the homestead inherited from her Christian ancestors who emigrated from the Isle of Man, situated between England and Ireland. At the age of thirteen, the love of God was shed abroad in her heart, and her teen years were spent in increasing consecration. During her late teens, Clara began assisting others in gospel meetings, at which time she penned "Satisfied." Later, she traversed several states, from town to town, as a circuit riding preacher.
...
Elisabeth Rundle Charles
1828 - 1896
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Elisabeth Rundle Charles (1828-1896) was an English poet, linguist, musician, and painter, who became a well-known Victorian author of fifty books of Christian history and literature. The only child of John and Joana Rundle of Tavistock, Devonshire, she was educated at home in the classic disciplines and was writing poetry by age thirteen. Near age eighteen, she received Christ and, from the overflowing joy of her conversion, wrote
"Come and Rejoice with Me!"
Elisabeth translated and published her first book at a...
Gerhardt Tersteegen
1697 - 1769
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Gerhardt Tersteegen was born in Germany amid the residual strife of the Thirty Years' War. In preparation to attend a university, young Gerhardt studied at the Latin school at Mörs for over nine years. However, at age fifteen he became a menial apprentice because his mother could not provide the education he desired, for his father had died when he was only six. While still a teen, Gerhardt was brought to Christ through the shepherding of the pietist Wilhelm Hoffman.
Tersteegen took up ribbon-weaving and lived an isolated, asce...
Howard Higashi
1937 - 1998
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Howard Higashi-a third-generation Hawaiian of Japanese Buddhist ancestry-was born to a Hawaiian sugar plantation foreman and his wife. Little did these parents imagine that their newborn infant was destined to become a melodious servant of Christ.
Growing up enjoying the easygoing environment of the island seemed unlikely to prepare Higashi's heart to be a desperate seeker of God. Nevertheless, paradise seemed to end when the father he adored died at the age of fifty-two. For the first time, Higashi began to question the...
Samuel Rutherford
1600 - 1661
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"Welcome, welcome, cross of Christ, if Christ be with it. An afflicted life looks very like the way that leads to the kingdom." —Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661)
Samuel Rutherford is known both for his courageous struggle to maintain scriptural truths recovered during the Reformation in Scotland and for his descriptions of the beauties of a Christ-filled life. He was educated in Edinburgh, and was converted to Christ around age 23. His greatest joy was of preaching Christ.
Rutherford signed the National Covenant ...
Watchman Nee
1903 - 1972
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Watchman Nee was born as Nee Shu-tsu in Foochow, China, in 1903, into a third-generation Christian family. His paternal grandfather was the first Congregationalist pastor in northern Fukien province. His father studied in the American Methodist College in Foochow, and his mother was educated in the Chinese Western Girls' School in Shanghai.
Nee excelled at Anglican Trinity College in Foochow. After being saved in 1920, he adopted the English name Watchman Nee and the Chinese name To-sheng, meaning "the sound of a watchman's rat...
William Spencer Walton
1850 - 1906
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William Spencer Walton was born in London to Charles and Martha Walton. Though frail, he enjoyed a pleasant childhood until age fifteen when his father died.
Saved at age twenty-two, he served the Lord first in evening evangelism, then in the British Isles fulltime, and lastly in South Africa. During his first trip there in 1888, hundreds were saved. Walton then returned to England to establish the Cape General Mission in 1889. While in England, he married Kathleen Dixon, who also served in South Africa. Sadly, after on...