More Love To Thee, O Christ

Elizabeth Prentiss wrote the hymn in 1856 when she was experiencing poor health. The inspiration came in a moment, and she quickly wrote the lines of the four stanzas, though she did not complete the final stanza. Thirteen years later she showed the poem to her husband, George L. Prentiss, professor of preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He encouraged her to publish the poem in a leaflet in 1869, to be distributed among friends. Before she sent the copy to the printer she completed the final stanza. The third stanza, often omitted, contains references to her own personal difficulties.

Let sorrow do its work

Come grief or pain;

Sweet are thy messengers,

Sweet their refrain

When they can sing with me,

More love, O Christ to Thee, 

More love to Thee.