My Jesus, I Love Thee

We love Him because He first loved us.

1 John 4:19

"The young people of today are utterly dissolute and disorderly," fumed grumpy old Martin Luther in the sixteenth century. The philosopher Plato agreed. "The youth are rebellious, pleasure-seeking, and irresponsible," he wrote. "They have no respect for their elders." Socrates complained, "Children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority. They show disrespect for elders, and love charter."

A 6000-year-old Egyptian tomb bears this inscription: "We live in a decadent age. Young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude and impatient. They inhabit taverns and have no self-control."

The next time you think the "modern generations" is going from bad to worse, remember that God always has a rich handful of teenage heroes ready to change the world. In Bible times, we read of Joseph the dreamer, Daniel in Babylon, David the giant-killer, and the virgin Mary (likely still a teen).

As a teenager, Charles Spurgeon preached to great crowds, but when they referred to his youthfulness, he replied, "Never mind my age. Think of the Lord Jesus Christ and His preciousness."

In our own day, we've been deeply moved by young people like 17-year old Cassie Bernall of Littleton, Colorado, who was shot for her faith during the Columbine tragedy.

Some of our greatest hymns were also written by young adults. Isaac Watts wrote most of his most memorable hymns at about the age of nineteen. When poet John Milton was fifteen, he wrote the well-known, "Let Us with a Gladstone Mind." The hymn, "Work for the Night Is Coming," was written by an eighteen-year-old. And this hymn of deep devotion, "My Jesus, I Love Thee," was written by William Ralph Featherston at age sixteen. Sixteen!

Featherston was born July 23, 1846, in Montreal. He died in the same city 26 years later. It seems likely that William wrote this hymn as a poem celebrating his conversion to Christ. Reportedly, he sent it to an aunt living in California, and somehow it was published as an anonymous hymn in a British hymnal in 1864.

Little else is known about the origin of the hymn or its author, but that's all right. It's enough just to know that God can change the world through anyone-regardless of age-who will say, "My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine. For Thee, all the follies of sin I resign."

Taken from the book: Then Sings My Soul