• “It was God who put it into their hearts and gave them the determination to do it… After bringing me down, He was pleased to raise me up again.” – Madame Guyon

Even Me by Elizabeth H. Codner (And the story behind the hymn)

A par­ty of young friends ov­er whom I was watch­ing with anx­ious hope at­tend­ed a meet­ing in which de­tails were giv­en of a re­viv­al work in Ire­land. They came back great­ly im­pressed. My fear was lest their own fleece re­main dry, and I pressed up­on them the priv­i­lege and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of gett­ing a share in the out­poured bless­ing.

On the Sun­day fol­low­ing, not be­ing well enough to get out, I had a time of qui­et com­mun­ion. Those child­ren were still on my heart, and I longed to press up­on them an ear­nest in­di­vid­u­al ap­peal. With­out ef­fort words seemed to be giv­en to me, and they took the form of a hymn, which as it was passed from one to an­oth­er of the young peo­ple, be­came a word of pow­er, and I then pub­lished it as a leaf­let.

Of its fu­ture his­to­ry I can on­ly say the Lord took it quite out of my own hands. It was read from pul­pits, cir­cu­lat­ed by tens of thou­sands, and blessed in a re­mark­a­ble de­gree. Ev­ery now and then some sweet to­ken was sent to cheer me in a some­what iso­lat­ed life, of its in­flu­ence up­on souls.

Now it would be tid­ings from afar of a young of­fi­cer dy­ing in Ind­ia and send­ing home his Bi­ble with the hymn past­ed on the fly­leaf as the pre­cious me­mo­ri­al of that which brought him to the Lord.

Then came the sto­ry of a poor out­cast ga­thered in­to the fold by the same means.

Then came to me a let­ter gi­ven me by Mr. E. P. Ham­mond, which he had re­ceived, and in which were the words:

‘Thank you for sing­ing that hymn Even Me, for it was the sing­ing of that hymn that saved me. I was a lost wo­man, a wick­ed mo­ther. I have stol­en and lied and been so bad to my dear, in­no­cent child­ren. Friendless, I at­tend­ed your in­qui­ry meet­ing; but no one came to me be­cause of the crowd. But on Sa­tur­day af­ter­noon, at the First Pres­by­ter­i­an Church, when they all sang that hymn to­ge­ther, those beau­ti­ful words, Let some drops now fall on me, and al­so those, Bless­ing oth­ers, O bless me, it seemed to reach my ve­ry soul. I thought, Je­sus can ac­cept me—even me, and it brought me to his feet, and I feel the bur­den of sin re­moved. Can you won­der that I love those words and I love to hear them sung?’

The orig­in­al ren­der­ing has in a va­ri­e­ty of in­stan­ces been de­part­ed from. To some al­ter­a­tions I have con­sent­ed, but al­ways pre­fer that the words re­main un­changed from the form in which at first God so rich­ly blessed them.

The point of the hymn, in its close and in­di­vi­du­al ap­pli­ca­tion, is in the Ev­en me at the end of the verse. I thank­ful­ly com­mit them to who­ev­er de­sires to use them in the ser­vic­es of our bless­ed Mas­ter:

Lord, I hear of showers of blessing,
Thou art scattering full and free;
Showers the thirsty land refreshing;
Let some drops now fall on me;
Even me, even me,
Let some drops now fall on me.

Pass me not, O God, my Father,
Sinful though my heart may be;
Thou mightst leave me, but the rather;
Let Thy mercy light on me;
Even me, even me,
Let Thy mercy light on me.

Pass me not, O gracious Savior,
Let me live and cling to Thee;
I am longing for Thy favor;
Whilst Thou’rt calling, O call me;
Even me, even me,
Whilst Thou’rt calling, O call me.

Pass me not, O mighty Spirit!
Thou canst make the blind to see;
Witnesser of Jesus’ merit,
Speak the Word of power to me;
Even me, even me,
Speak the Word of power to me.

Have I been in sin long sleeping,
Long been slighting, grieving Thee?
Has the world my heart been keeping?
O forgive and rescue me;
Even me, even me,
O forgive and rescue me.

Love of God, so pure and changeless,
Blood of Christ, so rich and free;
Grace of God, so strong and boundless
Magnify them all in me;
Even me, even me,
Magnify them all in me.

Pass me not; but pardon bringing,
Bind my heart, O Lord, to Thee;
Whilst the streams of life are springing,
Blessing others, O bless me;
Even me, even me,
Blessing others, O bless me.

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2 Responses to Even Me by Elizabeth H. Codner (And the story behind the hymn)

  • Shirley Eikle says:

    I came upon this hymn in an Ira Sankey hymn book of 1200 hymns- It really spoke as a prayer, especially verse six. Although we can feel weak in faith, God is greater, and know our heart. As Hudson Taylor said: "I don't have great faith, but faith in a great God"! We are a group of seniors in a residence, and have been praying since 2020, 7 days a week on a merge call. All of us are 70 and over-four of us. By and with God's grace, we have only missed one evening. We pray for family, friends, church, and missions. We live in Quebec where we are definitely a minority-it is a Catholic mostly French speaking province. We are part of the "remnant" here! Thanks for you website-may you be blessed, and continue to be a blessing on this site. SE

    • womenofchristianity says:

      Amen. Praise His holy name. Thank you so much for what you shared and for your labors for His name’s sake there where He has you! “Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness” (2 Corinthians 9:10)

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  • “I never felt such an entire emptiness of self-love, or any regard to any private, selfish interest of my own. It seemed to me, that I had entirely done with myself. I felt that the opinions of the world concerning me were nothing, and that I had no more to do with any outward interest of my own, than with that of a person whom I never saw. The glory of God seemed to be all, and in all, and to swallow up every wish and desire of my heart” – Sarah Edwards, wife of Jonathan Edwards

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For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, — 1 Timothy 2:5-6 (NKJV)

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