"Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" John 1:29
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Words: Charlotte Elliott, 1835; first appeared in The Christian Remembrancer, whose editor Elliott became in 1836. The last verse is from Elliott's Hours of Sorrow Cheered and Comforted, 1836.
Music: "Woodworth," William Batchelder Bradbury, Mendelssohn Collection, or Third Book of Psalmody (New York: 1849)
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Miss Charlotte Elliott was visiting some friends in the West End of London, and there met the eminent minister, Cesar Malan. While seated at supper, the minister said he hoped that she was a Christian. She took offense at this, and replied that she would rather not discuss that question. Dr. Malan said that he was sorry if had offended her, that he always liked to speak a word for his Master, and that he hoped that the young lady would some day become a worker for Christ. When they met again at the home of a mutual friend, three weeks later, Miss Elliott told the minister that ever since he had spoken to her she had been trying to find her Saviour, and that she now wished him to tell her how to come to Christ. "Just come to him as you are," Dr. Malan said. This she did, and went away rejoicing. Shortly afterward she wrote this hymn.
My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns, by Ira D. Sankey (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Sunday School Times Company, 1907).
About these words, her brother said:
In the course of a long ministry, I hope I have been permitted to see some of the fruit of my labor, but I feel that far more has been done by a single hymn of my sister's.