When William Newell was a boy his father was exasperated with him. It was so bad that his father wanted to enroll him at Moody Bible Institute. The only problem was that the president of Moody, Dr. R.A. Torrey, would not allow it stating that, “Moody is  a Bible School, not a reformatory”. The boy’s father was persistent and convinced Dr. Torrey to allow William to be admitted at Moody as long as he met daily with him and followed all the rules. William was a very troubled young man and Dr. Torrey believed he was a lost cause. In the midst of all the frustrating meetings something got thru to young William.

Now, lets jump several years into this troubled young man’s future. Make that Professor William R. Newell of Moody Bible Institute. In 1895 while the Professor was on his way to give a lecture he put his testimony into a poem. He passed Dr. Towner, the director of music for Moody, and handed him the poem and said it needs a tune. By the time William was done with the lecture the tune was finished. You know it today as “At Calvary”, our foundation hymn for Sunday, June 5th.

      Mercy there was great and grace was free

     Pardon there was multiplied to me

    There my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary

Our other songs for this Sunday are, My Savior My God, which you might recognize as an old hymn called “I am not skilled to understand”. We will also sing I Will Not Be Shaken which includes Holy Holy Holy.  The bridge of this song states,

Our God will not be moved! Our God will never change! Our God will reign forever-more!

This week think back on how you found God, or, should I say, how He found you!