God Be With You

This popular benediction hymn along with “Blest Be the Tie That Binds” has been sung at the close of more Church Services over the past 100 years than any other hymns combined. “God Be with You till We Meet Again” was written and published, in 1882, by the Reverend Jeremiah Eames Rankin, who was, at the time, pastor of the First Congregational Church of Washington D.C. The poem that Rankin originally wrote had eight stanzas, but today the first, second, fourth and seventh stanzas are all that are commonly sung.

Jeremiah Rankin was born in Thornton, New Hampshire, on January 2, 1828. He was a graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont and received his theological training at the Andover Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. Dr. Rankin severed as pastor of several prominent congregational churches in New England and Washington D.C. until 1889, when he became president of Howard University, Washington D.C. Dr. Rankin was also known as a powerful and effective preacher; and attracted large crowds, not only with his speaking, but also with his emphasis on congregational singing, especially in his evangelistic, Sunday evening services.

Mr Rankin has left the following account regarding the writing of “God Be With You”:'Written as a Christian good-bye, it was called forth by no person or occasion, but was deliberately composed as a Christian hymn on the basis of the etymology of “good-bye,” which is “God be with you.” I consulted the dictionary for the definition of the word 'good-bye', and found it to be a contraction of 'God be with ye'. Very soon the first verse was completed. The first stanza was written and sent to two composers—one of unusual note, the other wholly unknown and not thoroughly educated in music. I selected the composition of the latter, submitted it to J. W. Bischoff—the musical director of a little book we were preparing—who approved of it, but made some criticisms, which were adopted. It was sung for the first time one evening in the First Congregational Church in Washington, of which I was then the pastor and Mr. Bischoff the organist. I attributed its popularity in no little part to the music to which it was set. It was a wedding of words and music, at which it was my function to preside; but Mr. Tomer should have his full share of the family honor.'

William Gould Tomer was born on October 5, 1833. He severed in t he Union Army during the Civil War and the became a public school teacher in New Jersey. When he composed the music for this text upon Dr. Rankin’s request, he was serving as music director at the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington D.C. Later, he returned to New Jersey, where he spent his remaining years teaching school. This hymn was sung at his own funeral, in 1896.

“God Be With You” was widely used in the Moody and Sankey meetings throughout North America and England, it also became the “Official” closing song for the Christian Endeavor Conventions around the world and as such was translated into many different languages.