Methodist evangelist George Bennard wrote this classic hymn over a long period of time as he traveled to revival meetings. "I seemed to have a vision... I saw the Christ and the cross inseparable," he wrote in his memoirs.
The melody came easily to Bennard, but the words took him longer. The evangelist wrote the first verse in Albion, Michigan, in the fall of 1912 as a response to ridicule that he had received at a revival meeting. He completed the refrain and other three verses in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin where he was holding some evangelistic gatherings between December 29, 1912 to January 12, 1913.
Published in 1915, the gospel song was popularized by Billy Sunday during his evangelistic campaigns and nationally broadcast radio show. Two members of his campaign staff, Homer Rodeheaver and Virginia Asher, are thought to be the first to record the tune in 1921.
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