Lyrics
Fear not, little flock, from the cross to the throne,
From death into life He went for His own;
All power in earth, all power above,
Is given to Him for the flock of His love.
Only believe, only believe;
All things are possible, only believe;
Only believe, only believe;
All things are possible, only believe.
Fear not, little flock, He goeth ahead,
Your Shepherd selecteth the path you must tread;
The waters of Marah He'll sweeten for thee,
He drank all the bitter in Gethsemane.
Fear not, little flock, whatever your lot,
He enters all rooms, "the doors being shut,"
He never forsakes; He never is gone,
So count on His presence in darkness and dawn.
Public domain hymn text and tune (published 1921). Words and music by Paul Rader.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Paul Rader, who wrote "Only Believe" in 1921, came to the pulpit by an unusually varied road — he described himself, without much exaggeration, as an ex-bellboy, ex-cowboy, ex-prospector, ex-football player, and ex-boxer before he became one of the most forceful evangelistic preachers of the early twentieth century. He served as pastor of Moody Church in Chicago from 1915 to 1921, and succeeded Albert B. Simpson as president of the Christian and Missionary Alliance from 1920 to 1923.
The hymn takes its title and refrain from Mark 5:36, where Jesus tells a grieving father whose daughter has just died, "Be not afraid, only believe." Rader built the verses around the image of a "little flock" — drawn from Luke 12:32 — reassured across each stanza by a different facet of Christ's constant presence: His authority, His guidance through hardship, His nearness even behind locked doors.
Structurally, the hymn is almost entirely refrain — four short lines, repeating the same phrase, "only believe," eight times over in a single chorus. That deliberate, driving repetition made it a favorite in the kind of large evangelistic and healing meetings Rader and, later, preachers such as Smith Wigglesworth and William Branham were known for, where a short, easily repeated line could carry across a crowd.
Its reach eventually extended well past revival tents: it was reportedly a personal favorite of Elvis Presley, an unlikely afterlife for a hymn born out of a former cowboy-turned-preacher's reading of one line from the Gospel of Mark.
