O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
Through death into life everlasting
He passed, and we follow Him there;
Over us sin no more hath dominion—
For more than conqu’rors we are!
His Word shall not fail you—He promised;
Believe Him, and all will be well:
Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell!
Public domain hymn text (1922). Words by Helen H. Lemmel.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Helen H. Lemmel was an English-born hymn writer who emigrated to the United States and worked for a period as a voice teacher before losing her eyesight entirely later in life, and she wrote this hymn's text and tune together in 1922, reportedly after reading a religious tract that included the simple phrase 'turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim,' a line Lemmel found so immediately striking that she said the entire hymn's words and music came to her together within a very short time of encountering it.
Lemmel's own later blindness gives the hymn's central instruction to 'turn your eyes' and 'look full in His wonderful face' a particular resonance when considered against her own biography, though the hymn itself was written some years before she lost her own eyesight, meaning the connection, however striking in retrospect, reflects circumstances that developed only later in her life rather than shaping the hymn's original composition.
The hymn's central claim — that sustained attention fixed on Christ causes 'the things of earth' to 'grow strangely dim' by comparison, rather than promising that earthly troubles will simply disappear or be resolved — offers a subtly different kind of comfort than many other hymns of consolation found elsewhere in this collection, focusing on a shift in the singer's own perspective and attention rather than on any change in outward circumstances themselves.
The hymn's second verse describes believers as being 'more than conqu'rors,' directly quoting Romans 8:37, and its third verse turns outward toward evangelism, urging the singer to carry this same message of perspective-shifting hope 'to a world that is dying' — moving the hymn's focus, verse by verse, from personal comfort to shared testimony intended for others still struggling with exactly the same weariness the hymn's opening verse describes.
