"We live by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7
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Words: Ray Palmer, 1830.
Music: "Olivet (Mason)," Lowell Mason, 1830
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Courtesy of Yale Divinity School Library |
Ray Palmer wrote these lyrics upon receiving a vision of Christ shortly after his graduation Yale University, while working as a tutor at a New York school. However, he kept them to himself until meeting Lowell Mason on a street in Boston, Massachusetts. When Mason asked him to write something for a new hymnal, Palmer dug out his old notes and produced these lyrics, written two years earlier. After taking the lyrics home and reading them, Mason composed this tune. Several days later he saw Palmer again and said:
You may live many years and do many good things, but I think you will be best known to posterity as the author of My Faith Looks Up to Thee.