206. More About Jesus

The Story Behind the Hymn

Eliza E. Hewitt, already discussed at length elsewhere in this collection as the Philadelphia schoolteacher whose career ended after a spinal injury (see hymn 66, 'Sunshine in My Soul'), wrote this hymn's text in 1887, part of the same general period of prolonged physical limitation that had already redirected her working life from teaching toward hymn writing.

Unlike several of her other hymns represented elsewhere in this collection, which tend to emphasize joyful, settled confidence, this hymn instead expresses an ongoing, unsatisfied hunger for continued growth in knowledge and understanding of Christ — its repeated request for 'more' rather than expressing contentment with a fixed, already-complete level of spiritual knowledge, treating the Christian life as a continuing process of deepening understanding rather than a single achieved state.

The hymn's third verse, specifically requesting closer attention to Scripture itself — 'more about Jesus in His Word' — reflects a consistent emphasis found throughout much of Hewitt's writing on the Bible as the primary ongoing source of continued Christian growth, rather than treating spiritual maturity as something achieved once and requiring no further active study or attention.

John R. Sweney, a prolific American gospel song composer who wrote tunes for a considerable number of hymns during this same general period, composed the tune, and the completed hymn has remained a standard piece specifically associated with personal devotion and ongoing spiritual growth, its repeated plea for 'more' offering congregations language for expressing continued spiritual hunger rather than settled completion.