Sample Text

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There's light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in his wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace.

Through death into life everlasting
He passed, and we follow Him there;
Over us sin no more hath dominion—
For more than conquerors we are!

His word shall not fail you—He promised;
Believe Him, and all will be well:
Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell!

Helen Howarth Lemmel (1864-1961)

HELEN LEMMEL was already a noted Christian singer and voice teacher on that day in 1918 when a friend of hers, a missionary, handed her a tract called "Focused." It said: "So then, turn your eyes upon Him, look full into His face and you will find that the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness."

The tract struck a chord in Lemmel. "Suddenly," she said later, "as if commanded to stop and listen, I stood still, and singing in my soul and spirit was the chorus, with not one conscious moment of putting word to word to make rhyme, or note to note to make melody. The verses were written the same week, after the usual manner of composition."

Later that same year, the song was published in London in pamphlet form. It quickly became a favorite of Christians in England (especially at the Keswick Convention), then in America, and around the world. It has urged generations of believers to stop, look to the Lord, and listen for His guidance.

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Selected text from The One Year Book of Hymns Copyright (c) 1995 by Robert K. Brown and Mark R. Norton. Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved.

Song Copyright (c) 1922 Singspiration Music/ASCAP. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Benson Music Group, Inc.

About the Author(s)

Compiled and edited by Robert K. Brown and Mark R. Norton. Devotions written by William J. Petersen and Randy Petersen.

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