Lyrics
According to Thy gracious word,
In meek humility,
This will I do, my dying Lord,
I will remember Thee.
Thy body, broken for my sake,
My bread from Heaven shall be;
The testamental cup I take,
And thus remember Thee.
Gethsemane can I forget?
Or there Thy conflict see,
Thine agony, and bloody sweat,
And not remember Thee?
When to the cross I turn mine eyes,
And rest on Calvary,
O Lamb of God, my sacrifice!
I must remember Thee.
Remember Thee, and all Thy pains
And all Thy love to me;
Yea, while a breath, a pulse remains,
Will I remember Thee.
And when these failing lips grow dumb
And mind and memory flee,
When Thou shalt in Thy kingdom come,
Jesus, remember me.
Public domain hymn text (1825), a communion hymn based on Luke 22:19.
The Story Behind the Hymn
James Montgomery wrote "According to Thy Gracious Word" in 1825, publishing it in The Christian Psalmist, a collection printed in Glasgow. Montgomery, born in Scotland in 1771 to Irish parents, was the son of John Montgomery, apparently the only Moravian pastor serving in Scotland at the time — a devout household that shaped Montgomery's own lifelong commitment to hymn writing, which by the end of his life totaled nearly four hundred hymns.
Among students of hymnology, Montgomery is commonly ranked just behind Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley as one of the most significant English hymn writers, and "According to Thy Gracious Word" is counted among his finest work. It is a communion hymn through and through, written specifically for use at the Lord's Supper and built around the words of institution: "This do in remembrance of Me."
The hymn's structure carries that instruction through six stanzas, each ending on the same word — "remember" — applied in turn to the broken bread, to Gethsemane's agony, to Calvary, and finally, in a quiet turn at the close, to the believer's own coming death, echoing the thief on the cross who asked simply, "Jesus, remember me." What begins as an act the believer performs — I will remember Thee — ends as a plea for Christ to do the remembering instead.
The tune most commonly paired with the text, MARTYRDOM, was composed by Hugh Wilson around 1800 and later arranged by Ralph E. Hudson in the 1880s — itself an older tune than Montgomery's words, giving the hymn a settled, well-worn quality even in its earliest printings.
