Blest Be the Tie That Binds by Ernest Lloyd

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 15, 1909

“Blest Be the Tie That Binds”

By Ernest Lloyd

JOHN FAWCETT, the author of this sympathetic hymn, was a minister in charge of a parish in a poor district in England. So poor were the members of his congregation that he received only about sixteen shillings a week for his support. In 1772 he accepted a call to a parish in London. He preached his farewell sermon, and the day arrived for him to leave Lockshire. Six wagons, loaded with his books and furniture, stood in front of his house. His congregation—men, women, and children—gathered about the door; all were in tears; the agony of the parting was manifest on their faces. Mr. Fawcett and his wife, deeply touched, sat on a packing-case. Tears were shed by them also. Mrs. Fawcett, looking up to her husband, said: “O John, John, I can not bear this! I know not where to go!” “Nor I, either,” said he, “nor will we go. Unload the wagons, and put everything back in its old place.” He recalled his letter of acceptance, took up his work again among his loving flock, and wrote this hymn to commemorate the evident Christian love which bound them “like to that above.” What a monument of loyal love between a pastor and his flock!—Ernest Lloyd, in Present Truth.