There is sunshine in my soul today,
More glorious and bright
Than glows in any earthly sky,
For Jesus is my light.
O there's sunshine, blessed sunshine,
When the peaceful, happy moments roll;
When Jesus shows His smiling face,
There is sunshine in my soul.
There is music in my soul today,
A carol to my King,
And Jesus, listening, can hear
The songs I cannot sing.
There is springtime in my soul today,
For when the Lord is near,
The dove of peace sings in my heart,
The flowers of grace appear.
Note: the later verse(s) below have been reconstructed from historical memory and may not be word-for-word identical to the original published text.
Public domain hymn text (published 1887). Words by Eliza E. Hewitt.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Eliza Edmunds Hewitt was a Philadelphia schoolteacher whose promising teaching career was ended abruptly and permanently when a disruptive student struck her forcefully with a heavy writing slate during a classroom incident, causing a serious spinal injury that subsequently left her either fully bedridden or confined within a rigid body cast for an extended period of recovery afterward; further ongoing health complications stemming from that same original injury kept her largely physically confined for much of the remainder of her adult life, a period during which she gradually turned with increasing intensity and dedication to hymn writing as her primary remaining creative and ministry outlet.
Rather than writing hymns dominated by complaint, lament, or dwelling at length on her own considerable and ongoing physical suffering during this long period of confinement, Hewitt instead produced a substantial body of work, including this particular hymn, that is notably and consistently bright, cheerful, and thankful in overall tone throughout — the hymn's central phrase, 'sunshine in my soul,' deliberately describes an inward spiritual joy and contentment presented as explicitly independent of and unaffected by a person's outward physical circumstances, a carefully chosen theme that carried particular personal weight and authenticity given the genuine ongoing pain, physical confinement, and daily limitation that continued to define Hewitt's own lived experience throughout the very years she was writing hymns celebrating unclouded inward joy.
Despite her significant and lasting physical limitations, Hewitt went on to serve for many years afterward as the official Sunday school superintendent of her own Philadelphia congregation, apparently continuing this demanding organizational and teaching role even while dealing with her ongoing health complications, and she wrote a considerable number of her most enduringly popular hymns, including this one, specifically with children's voices and organized Sunday school congregational singing in mind as the intended primary audience.
That deliberate focus on a young, still-developing audience of child singers helps directly explain the hymn's characteristically simple, buoyant, and easily memorized repeated chorus structure — Hewitt writing consciously and specifically for children even while she herself, the adult author composing the words, continued to live daily with the very real physical pain and restriction that the hymn's own bright, untroubled lyrics never once directly mention or acknowledge.
