“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” ~ Isaiah 1:18

This hymn speaks about the truth of the certainty of our personal relationship with God. It references Bible verses, including Romans 5 (“Jesus’ sacrifice gives life”) and Isaiah 1:18 (“a crimson flow”). The text was written by a lay woman named Elvina Hall. She wrote these words one Sunday morning, in 1865, while seated in the choir loft of the Monument Street Methodist Church of Baltimore, Maryland, supposedly listening to the sermon by her pastor, George Schrick. During the course of the message, she began scribbling the words of the poem on the flyleaf of her church hymnal. She composed four stanzas and titled them “Jesus Paid It All”.

After the service, Elvina gave the poem to the pastor. Several days before, the organist, John Grape, gave Pastor Schrick a copy of a new tune he had recently composed, titled “All to Christ I Owe”. After reading her poem, Schrick saw that the words and the tune would match perfectly. Grape’s tune included a refrain, so Mrs. Hall added the words,

     Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe:
     Sin had left a crimson stain; He washed it white as snow.

At Schrick’s urging, they sent the hymn to Professor Theodore Perkins, publisher of the Sabbath Carols periodical, where it received its first publication.

Elvina Mable Hall was born June 4, 1820 in Alexandria Virginia. She was married to Richard Hall, and after his death, married a Methodist minister, Thomas Meyers. John T. Grape, composer of the tune, born in 1835, was a successful coal merchant in

Baltimore. For many years he was an active lay-worker in the Monument Street Church, working in the Sunday School as well as serving as the organist-choir director. This hymn in its present form first appeared in Philip Bliss’s Gospel Song Book Collection (1874). An obscure woman scribbles a poem on the flyleaf of her hymnal, an amateur church musician unknowingly creates a matching tune, an unknown pastor provides encouragement and another hymn is born, that has since found an important place in our church hymnals. In turn it has ministered spiritual challenge and blessing to many people for more than a century.

Taken from 101 More Hymn Stories Copyright © 1985, 2013 by Kenneth W. Osbeck. Published by Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI. Used by permission. All rights reserved.