"Just as I Am" is a Christian hymn, written by Charlotte Elliott in 1835, first appearing in the Christian Remembrancer, of which Elliott became the editor in 1836. The final verse is taken from Elliott's Hours of Sorrow Cheered and Comforted (1836).
Contents
Music
It has been set to at least four hymn tunes:
The original, "Woodworth", was written by William B. Bradbury, and was first published in the Third Book of Psalmody in 1849. The "Woodworth" tune was first used for the hymn "The God of Love Will Soon Indulge". Thomas Hastings adapted Bradbury's tune for "Just as I Am" years later.
In 1890, Arthur H. Brown wrote "Saffron Walden" which was published in The Hymnal Companion.
It can also be sung to Gwylfa by D. Lloyd Evans.
John Rogers Thomas wrote a setting for his Hymns of the Church series.
It is also sung to the Henry Thomas Smart tune "Misericordia".
History
John Brownlie described the hymn's story in his book The Hymns and Hymn Writers of the Church Hymnary:
Charlotte's brother, the Rev. H. V. Elliott planned to hold a charity bazaar designed to give, at a nominal cost, a high education to the daughters of clergymen supported by St Mary Church:
The night before the bazaar she was kept wakeful by distressing thoughts of her apparent uselessness; and these thoughts passed by a transition easy to imagine into a spiritual conflict, till she questioned the reality of her whole spiritual life, and wondered whether it were anything better after all than an illusion of the emotions, an illusion ready to be sorrowfully dispelled. The next day, the busy day of the bazaar, she lay upon her sofa in that most pleasant boudoir set apart for her in Westfield Lodge, ever a dear resort to her friends." The troubles of the night came back upon her with such force that she felt they must be met and conquered in the grace of God. She gathered up in her soul the great certainties, not of her emotions, but of her salvation: her Lord, His power, His promise. And taking pen and paper from the table she deliberately set down in writing, for her own comfort, "the formulae of her faith." Hers was a heart which always tended to express its depths in verse. So in verse she restated to herself the Gospel of pardon, peace, and heaven. "Probably without difficulty or long pause" she wrote the hymn, getting comfort by thus definitely "recollecting" the eternity of the Rock beneath her feet. There, then, always, not only for some past moment, but " even now " she was accepted in the Beloved "Just as I am".
Altar song in the Billy Graham crusades
Billy Graham converted to Christianity in 1934 in a revival meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, led by evangelist Mordecai Ham hearing the altar call song "Just as I Am". This song became an altar call song in the Billy Graham crusades in the latter half of the twentieth century. Graham used the title of the hymn as the title of his 1997 book - Just as I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham. Michael W. Smith sang the song in a tribute to Graham at the 44th GMA Dove Awards.
Recordings
This song appears or is referenced on the following albums:
1959 – Hymns by Johnny Cash: "Are All the Children In" by Johnny Cash - background music
1975 – Red Headed Stranger by Willie Nelson
1975 – Johnny Cash Sings Precious Memories by Johnny Cash
1989 – The Altar, by Ray Boltz
1994 - Wondrous Love by Jay Leach
1999 – Just as I Am by Johnny Cash
2002 – Traveling Mercies by Chris Potter
2005 – As I Am by Kristin Chenoweth
2009 – Daisy by Brand New
2011 – In Times of Sorrow by Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin
2011 – A River with No End by Ghost Ship (Mars Hill Church)
2012 – Just as I Am by Paul Brandt
2013 – Words of Life by Frank Morgan (Chilean gospel singer) - this album also features the Spanish version of this hymn, "Tal como soy"
2021 – Living for the Other Side by Hillbilly Thomists
2021 – My Savior - Carrie Underwood