At Calvary

This brother had a very deep experience and revelation concerning the cross at Calvary. I could not find any other hymns written by William Newell. I still like to research the biography of these obscure authors. Little is known of this man, it seems he was an Ohio native. It is interesting to see how many of these scholars were influenced by The Moody Bible Institute.

Biography:

William was the son of Da­vid Ay­ers New­ell and Eli­za­beth Reed, and hus­band of Mel­li­cent Woo­dworth.

He gra­du­at­ed from Woos­ter Col­lege, Ohio, in 1891, then at­tend­ed Prince­ton and Ob­er­lin Se­mi­nar­ies.

After or­di­na­tion, he be­came pas­tor of Be­thes­da Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois. In 1895, he be­came as­sist­ant su­per­in­tend­ent of the Moo­dy Bi­ble In­sti­tute in Chi­ca­go.

Newell was known for his Bib­li­cal com­ment­ar­ies on Ro­mans, He­brews, and the Book of Re­ve­la­tion.

He moved to Lees­burg, Flo­ri­da, in 1910, and for some time was pas­tor of the Pres­by­ter­ian church there.

I have had this song in my head since we sang it at church last week. I keep coming back to three words, grace was free.

I woke up this morning with these lyrics in my head. I was thinking about the words ‘there my burdened soul found liberty’ and how many people I pray would find that truth. What beautiful words are here.

I Praise God for you and for making this song available --- to everyone.

I pray that God will continue to use you to feel the earth with the Knowledge of His Glory as waters cover the Sea.

Love you God bless you.
Our Lord reigns.
Jesus is Lord.

Just writing in my journal this morning and wrote something about his mercy and grace. Immediately I flashed back to “mercy there was great and Grace was free pardon there was multiplied to me…” the words of the first stanza and much of the other stanzas came rushing back to me after decades (I am in my 60s now) of not singing it. I see the value in all forms of Christian music and have been touched by all genres, but this flashback to my childhood with the exact memory of the lyrics was incredible. I also realized how easy it is to sing, even hymns, without thinking about what the actual words mean, but just focusing on singing the parts (if you are musically inclined), or possibly just the melody line if you’re not. It wasn’t until my 20s That at one moment, I fullyrealized the importance of the lyrics! It happened when I looked back at another old hymn called “Am I a soldier of the cross? “

All I know is when God is, God does! A childhood hymn that has made the difference today.

My childhood song in CAMACOP. We always singing hymnal songs up until now. I’m 27.

I discovered this in 2025, just one week before Easter day. Thank God I can now sing all the words while I play the piano correctly

What a wonderful, timeless hymn!! Thank You Jesus!! You died for ME!!

Thank you JESUS for saving me from the bondage of sin