Lyrics
I think when I read that sweet story of old,
When Jesus was here among men,
How He called little children as lambs to His fold,
I should like to have been with them then.
I should like to have been with them then,
I should like to have been with them then;
How He called little children as lambs to His fold,
I should like to have been with them then.
I wish that His hands had been placed on my head,
That His arm had been thrown around me;
And that I might have seen His kind look when He said,
"Let the little ones come unto Me."
"Let the little ones come unto Me,
Let the little ones come unto Me;"
And that I might have seen His kind look when He said,
"Let the little ones come unto Me."
Yet still to His footstool in prayer I may go,
And ask for a share in His love;
And if I now earnestly seek Him below,
I shall see Him and hear Him above.
I shall see Him and hear Him above,
I shall see Him and hear Him above;
And if I now earnestly seek Him below,
I shall see Him and hear Him above.
In that beautiful place He has gone to prepare,
For all who are washed and forgiven;
And many dear children are gathering there,
For "Of such is the kingdom of heaven."
For "Of such is the kingdom of heaven,"
For "Of such is the kingdom of heaven;"
And many dear children are gathering there,
For "Of such is the kingdom of heaven."
Public domain hymn text and tune (text 1841, tune arranged 1859). Words by Jemima Luke; melody adapted by William B. Bradbury from a Greek folk air.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Jemima Thompson Luke wrote this hymn in 1841 while riding in a stagecoach between the English towns of Wellington and Taunton. The idea had been forming for some time. She had visited the Normal Infant School on Gray's Inn Road in London to observe its teaching methods, and among the marching songs the children sang there was a Greek folk melody whose simple, wistful quality stayed with her. She searched through the standard hymn writers of the day, Isaac Watts and Jane Taylor among them, hoping to find existing words that would fit the tune, but found nothing suitable.
So she wrote her own, composing the verses during that coach journey and titling the finished piece "The Child's Desire." It was first printed later that year in the Sunday School Teachers' Magazine, and reappeared anonymously in an 1863 Leeds hymnal before eventually being included, with her name attached, in hymn collections around the world.
The melody was formally arranged for American congregations in 1859 by William B. Bradbury, who kept the Greek folk tune Luke had first heard sung by London schoolchildren nearly two decades earlier.
Written specifically for children, the hymn imagines its way backward into the Gospel narrative of Christ blessing the children who were brought to Him — not as a distant Bible story, but as an experience the singer wishes, quite plainly, to have shared — before turning, in its final verses, from wishing to actually seeking Christ in prayer, and from there to the hope of one day being gathered among "the little ones" in heaven itself.
