Near To The Heart Of God: A Song History

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Cleland Boyd McAfee wrote both the words and the music of “Near To The Heart Of God,” which hymnary.org dates to 1903, and the tune carries his name, McAFEE.[1] The hymn first appeared in The Choir Leader in October 1903.[2] Born in Missouri in 1866, McAfee was the son of John A. McAfee, founder of Park College in Parkville, where Cleland graduated in 1884 and later taught philosophy, led the choir, and served as pastor and dean.[3]

Wood engraving of sheep resting by a winding stream, with cottages, trees and hills under a rising sun.

Edward Calvert, The Sheep of His Pasture, wood engraving, 1828. Shown for its peaceful subject; it has no connection to the hymn.

The usual story of the hymn’s origin is a family account, handed down through a book by McAfee’s daughter and repeated by the hymnologist William J. Reynolds.[2] In that telling, two of McAfee’s infant nieces died of diphtheria in 1903, and he wrote the hymn out of the family’s grief.[2] According to the same account, the choir practiced the new song that Saturday evening, then sang it outside the home of Howard McAfee, which was under quarantine, and repeated it the next morning at communion.[2] Sources differ on where McAfee was serving at the time: Discipleship Ministries introduces the story with his post at the Park College campus church, while hymnary.org has him leaving Park College for a Chicago pulpit in 1901.[2][3]

McAfee was minister of First Presbyterian Church of Chicago from 1901 and pastor of Lafayette Avenue Church in Brooklyn from 1904.[3] He then taught systematic theology at McCormick Theological Seminary from 1912 to 1930, led the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions until 1936, and served as moderator of his church’s General Assembly.[3] Hymnary.org lists the hymn in 203 hymnals, among them the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal (1985) and The Presbyterian Hymnal (1990).[4] Larry Conger includes it in Hymns For Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer, a collection of sixteen gospel hymns arranged for chromatic mountain dulcimer in DAD tuning, published by Fingers Of Steel.[5]

Our book that contains the song "Near To The Heart Of God"

Sources

  1. Hymnary.org: "Near to the Heart of God" (The United Methodist Hymnal, no. 472).
  2. Discipleship Ministries: "History of Hymns: 'Near to Heart of God' arises from tragic loss".
  3. Hymnary.org: "Cleland Boyd McAfee".
  4. Hymnary.org: "Near to the Heart of God" (text).
  5. Fingers Of Steel: "Larry Conger, Hymns For Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer".
  6. Image: Edward Calvert, The Sheep of His Pasture, wood engraving, 1828. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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