LIVING FOR JESUS

In Ocean Park, New Jersey in the 1950’s, you could often see Thomas Chisholm, a frail figure, ducking in and out of the cafés and shops.  You might also hear people whispering behind his back, “You see that Man?  He is the author of ‘Great is Thy Faithfulness’ and ‘O to Be Like Thee’, and LIVING FOR JESUS!" He  lived in the Methodist Home for the Aged to enjoy his sunset years.

Thomas was born in 1866 in a log cabin.  He had a sparse education, but yet at the age of 16, began teaching in the same one room school house he had attended as a child.  Four years later, the local paper offered him the positions of Office Editor and Business Manager. 

At the age of 27, during revival meetings conducted by Dr. H. C. Morrison, Thomas accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour.  In 1903, he was ordained and accepted the pastorate at the Methodist Church in Scottsville, Kentucky.  After only one year, his health collapsed and he had to leave this ministry and move home to the family property.

C. Harold Lowden sent Thomas some music one day and basically insisted that he write appropriate words for the hymn.  Thomas’s daughter hummed the music enough times for him to sense very inspired words.  The hymn LIVING FOR JESUS was published in 1917.