Hello and welcome to the Giants of the Faith podcast. My name is Robert Daniels and I'm the host of this show where we look at the lives of those that have gone before us that have made an impact for the Kingdom of God. This is episode 57 and we're continuing our look at some of the great hymn writers and writers of some of the great hymns of all time. The subject of today's episode is Thomas Obadiah Chisholm, author of the beautiful hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness.
Thomas Chisholm was born on July 29, 1866, outside of Franklin, Kentucky. His parents were James and Lucy Jane and he had one brother, Joseph. His early childhood was unremarkable. His father was a farmer and so Thomas worked on the farm with him. But at age 16 he became the teacher at the small country school that he had attended. Then in 1887 he took a job as an editor of The Franklin Favorite, the local weekly newspaper.
In 1893 he attended a revival meeting of the Methodist evangelist Henry Clay Morrison in Franklin and it was at this revival, at age 27, that Chisholm committed his life to Christ. Incidentally, Morrison later became president of Asbury College which has been in the news quite a bit at the time of this recording. Morrison ran a successful magazine the Pentecostal Herald and with the proceeds from it he saved Asbury from financial ruin and kept it a going concern. Morrison invited Chisholm to come to Louisville to become the editor of the Herald.
Ten years later, in 1903, two momentous things happened in Chisholm's life. First, he was ordained as a Methodist minister. He spent the next six years as a pastor until health issues forced him to retire in 1909. Second, he married Catherine Vandervere. Catherine was nine years his junior but the marriage was, by all accounts, a happy one. The couple produced two offspring - Ruth in 1905 and Dorothy in 1907.
When Chisholm left the pastorate in 1909 he moved his family to Winona Lake, Indiana, where he took up a career as an insurance salesman. He did pretty well as the family owned a house and farm free and clear.
Chisholm loved writing verse. He'd had some poems published prior to his Christian conversion and after it he began writing hymns and spiritual poems. Some of them he even sent to Fanny Crosby, who I'm sure you'll remember from episode 53, for comment and criticism. Fanny happily made notes and sent them back to Chisholm. During his life he wrote over 1200 poems. His aim was to glorify the Lord and he tried to take as much as he could directly from Scripture - either by direct quotation or by paraphrase. He tried to avoid any kind of fluff. He said of his work, "I have sought to be true to the Word, and to avoid flippant and catchy titles and treatment. I have greatly desired that each hymn or poem might have some definite message to the hearts for whom it was written." His first successful song was O! To Be Like Thee.
By 1916 the family had moved to Vineland, New Jersey. There Thomas took a job as a special agent. No, not with the government, selling life insurance.
In 1923 he published what would be his greatest work, Great Is Thy Faithfulness, inspired by Lamentations 3. He sent the lyrics to William Runyun, who was a composer at the Moody Bible Institute, and Runyun wrote the tune. The song was published that same year and became very popular through the Moody Institute and eventually through Billy Graham's ministry. The song continues to be immensely popular. In my home it is a favorite of my three year-old grandson.
Chisholm continued writing and publishing but never again had a hit like Great Is Thy Faithfulness. He worked in the insurance industry until he retired in 1953 at 87 years old. He moved to the Methodist Home for the Aged in Ocean City, New Jersey, where he died of natural causes on February 29, 1960. He was 94 years old.
Chisholm's was a life lived simply but also lived in service to the Lord. He was an insurance salesman that wrote one of the greatest English-language Christian songs in history. There is a lesson in that. We're not all going to go down in history because we wrote a great song, preached an amazing sermon, or did something grand for the Lord. But, in our small lives we can glorify God. Chisholm lived a small life. He also happened to do one grand thing but his greatness was in the everyday.
And that's it for this episode. Thank you for listening. Until next time, God bless.
RESOURCES
Hymnology Archive: https://www.hymnologyarchive.com/thomas-chisholm
Blue Letter Bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/hymns/bios/bio_c_h_chisholm_to.cfm
Wordwise Hymns: https://wordwisehymns.com/2010/07/29/today-in-1866-thomas-obediah-chisholm-born/
Wikitree: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Chisholm-1772
Evangelical Movement of Wales: https://www.emw.org.uk/2020/06/great-is-thy-faithfulness/