Lyrics
Once far from God and dead in sin,
No light my heart could see;
But in God's Word the light I found,
Now Christ liveth in me.
Christ liveth in me,
Christ liveth in me,
Oh! what a salvation this,
That Christ liveth in me.
As rays of light from yonder sun,
The flowers of earth set free,
So life and light and love came forth
From Christ living in me.
As lives the flower within the seed,
As in the cone the tree,
So, praise the God of truth and grace,
His Spirit dwelleth in me.
With longing all my heart is filled,
That like Him I may be,
As on the wondrous thought I dwell
That Christ liveth in me.
Public domain hymn text and tune (published 1891), based on Galatians 2:20.
The Story Behind the Hymn
"Christ Liveth in Me" was written by Daniel W. Whittle and published in 1891 in Gospel Hymns No. 6, with music by James McGranahan. Whittle wrote the text under the pen name "El Nathan," a pseudonym he used for most of his published hymn texts throughout his career.
Whittle's path to hymn writing ran through the Civil War. Born in 1840 in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, and named for the statesman Daniel Webster, he served as a Union Army officer and was severely wounded, losing an arm. It was during his recovery that he experienced the conversion that reshaped the rest of his life. In 1873, encouraged by Dwight L. Moody, he left his position in business to enter full-time evangelism.
McGranahan, who composed the tune, had his own significant role in the gospel song movement of the era: he became Whittle's song leader after the sudden death of Philip P. Bliss, Whittle's previous musical partner, in the Ashtabula River railroad disaster of 1876. The partnership between Whittle and McGranahan that followed produced several of the most durable gospel songs of the period, including "I Know Whom I Have Believed" and "There Shall Be Showers of Blessing" alongside this one. Bliss's own hymns remain part of this collection as well, including Wonderful Words of Life, Almost Persuaded, and Man of Sorrows! What a Name.
The hymn's text builds its argument through natural images — sunlight freeing a flower, a seed containing the whole shape of the tree to come — each one illustrating Paul's declaration in Galatians 2:20 that it is no longer the believer who lives, but Christ living within. It is less a testimony of a single moment than a meditation on what that indwelling actually looks like, played out one comparison at a time.
