July 22, 2005

Have faith in God –
His rainbow spans the sky;
Have faith in God –
Whose promise cannot lie;
Have faith in God –
In Him to live or die.
Have faith, dear friend, in God.

A Child of the King

Harriet Eugenia Peck Buell, 1834-1910

    The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Romans 8:16, 17.

    Harriett Buell wrote the words for A Child of the King one Sunday morning while walking home from her Methodist church service. She sent her text to the Northern Christian Advocate, and it was printed in the February 1, 1877 issue of the magazine. John Sumner, a singing school music teacher, saw the words and composed the music without Harriett Buell's knowledge. The hymn has been widely used since then to remind believers who they really are -- bearers of God's image (Genesis 1:26) and children of the King of kings through adoption in Christ!
    John Sumner had been praying for a Gospel song to replace the one that would have been written by his friend and teacher, Philip Bliss, who had recently suffered an untimely death. When Sumner saw these words, he knew his prayer had been answered.
    Mr. Peter P. Bilhorn relates the following incident in connection with this hymn, which happened when he was engaged in evangelistic work among the cowboys in the West, in 1883:

    “We had started up the Missouri River for Bismarck, and on Sunday we stopped at a new town, named Blunt, to unload some freight. A crowd of men and boys came down to the wharf. I took my little organ, went on the wharf-boat, and sang a few songs — among others the glorious hymn, I’m a child of of a King. I thought nothing more of the occasion until long afterward, when I sang the same song in Mr. Moody’s church in Chicago, Illinois. Then a man in the back part of the house arose, and said in a trembling voice: ’Two years ago I heard that song at Blunt, Dakota; I was then an unsaved man, but that song set me to thinking, and I decided to accept Christ, and I am now studying for the ministry.’”

My Father is rich in houses and lands,
He holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands!
Of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold,
His coffers are full, He has riches untold.

My Father’s own Son, the Savior of men,
Once wandered on earth as the poorest of them;
But now He is pleading our pardon on high,
That we may be His when He comes by and by.

I once was an outcast stranger on earth,
A sinner by choice, an alien by birth,
But I’ve been adopted, my name’s written down,
An heir to a mansion, a robe and a crown.

A tent or a cottage, why should I care?
They’re building a palace for me over there;
Though exiled from home, yet still may I sing:
All glory to God, I’m a child of the King.

Chorus:
I’m a child of the King,
A child of the King:
With Jesus my Savior,
I’m a child of the King.

Have Faith in God by H.M.S. Richards, Used by Permission