“All for Jesus” is well-known and dearly-loved by members of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). This is because it is the official college song of the PCA’s Covenant College on Lookout Mountain, high above the city of Chattanooga, TN. Even for those who do not have that church connection, the music and words make a powerful connection with all those who know and treasure the Lord Jesus. It is special for our family as our daughter is a 1994 alumnus of the college, and I am writing this from Chattanooga today as we are here to celebrate our grandson’s graduation from Covenant now in May of 2025.
Covenant College is a private, liberal arts Christian college atop Lookout Mountain, Georgia, overlooking Chattanooga, Tennessee. As the college of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), Covenant teaches subjects from a Reformed theological worldview. Approximately 1,000 students attend Covenant each year. Founded in 1955 in Pasadena, Covenant College and Covenant Theological Seminary moved its campusto St. Louis, Missouri the following year. In 1964, it separated from the seminary, moving to Lookout Mountain. In 1965, it was the site of the merger that formed the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod (RPCES). It became and remains the official college of the Presbyterian Church in America after the 1982 merger between the RPCES and the PCA. Covenant College offers liberal arts education from a Reformed Christian perspective. The focus of the college is found in its motto, “In All Things Christ Preeminent.” The purpose of this focus is to ground excellence in academic inquiry in a biblically grounded frame of reference, a theme that is well reflected in its official song, “All for Jesus.”
Carter Hall is the signature building on campus. It was originally named The Lookout Mountain Hotel and was built in 1928 by the Dinkler Hotel Corporation and run by Paul Carter, for whom the building is now named. It has been rumored, although not confirmed, that Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher spent their honeymoon there. It was popularly known as the “Castle in the Clouds.” However, since it was completed less than a year before the Great Depression, the hotel soon went bankrupt. It opened and closed several times prior to 1960, when it shut down for the last time. Bill Brock, the grandfather of the college’s fourth president, Frank Brock, served on the original board of the hotel.
Both the exterior and interior of Carter Hall are Austro-Bavarian Gothic revival in style. The building has had two towers in its history. The first tower was similar in design to the Frauenkirche (Cathedral of Our Lady) in Munich. Poor maintenance before acquisition by the college required it to be rebuilt. The new tower, though considerably simpler in style, maintains the architectural style of the original tower. Every year, the incoming freshman class will sign their name and graduation year on the walls of the tower.
Covenant College bought the building in 1964, upon relocating to Lookout Mountain. During the first few years of Covenant’s operation on the mountain, all the functions of the college were contained within Carter Hall. At that time, it housed the chapel, the library, the classrooms, the professors’ offices, dorm rooms, the dining hall, and administrative offices. Today, it has all of these except the library and chapel, as well as a cafe called “The Blink,” the campus bookstore, and the mailroom. From 2015 to 2017, Carter underwent significant renovations. They included improving the stucco, fixing insulation and moisture issues, and renovating the tower. The Dora Maclellan Brown Chapel on campus houses the music and theater department. Chapel occurs on campus three times a week, with various Christian speakers from all around the country.
The source for this hymn is John Stainer’s 1887 oratorio “The Crucifixion.” This, along with Theodore Dubois’s cantata “The Seven Last Words of Christ,” used to be standards for Good Friday services for most church choirs. It is scored for SATB choir, soloists, and organ and includes five hymns for congregational participation, the last of which is “For the Love of Jesus,” with its opening line: “All for Jesus.” The best known selection from the oratorio is “God So Loved the World,” which has probably been sung by more church choirs than any other 19th century anthem. Here’s a link to watch and listen to a full performance of Stainer’s composition performed by a typical amateur church choir.
Our study needs to touch several bases to complete the picture for the hymn as it appears in hymnals today. First is Sir John Stainer (1840-1901) and his oratorio, “The Crucifixion.” He was an English composer and organist who is remembered today almost exclusively for this one work. And yet his influence as an Anglican choir director and organist set standards that continue to this day. He became a chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London at the age of ten. At sixteen, he became a church organist at St. Michael’s College, Tenbury and later organist at Magdalen College, Oxford. Subsequently he won an appointment as organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral. In his later years he returned to Oxford as a professor of music. He died unexpectedly while on vacation in Italy.
Second is the text of Stainer’s work, which was written by W. J. Sparrow Simpson (1859-1952). He was an English Anglican priest who, in addition to the libretto for “The Crucifixion,” wrote several hymns and more than fifty books. Following graduation from Trinity College, Cambridge, he was ordained as a deacon and appointed as curate for Christ Church, Albany Street, in Marylebone, London. After serving as vicar of St. Mark’s, Regent’s Park for six years, he labored as a hospital chaplain from 1904 until his death. He had become an authority on the life and doctrines of Augustine of Hippo. His hymn, “Cross of Jesus, Cross of Sorrow,” included in “The Crucifixion,” is found in many hymnals to this day, though with only a few of its original ten stanzas. Ironically, Sparrow Simpson regarded this oratorio as “rubbish.” Stainer wrote all the music in “The Crucifixion,” included the music for the hymn texts written by Sparrow Simpson.
Third is the hymn text we sing today, which is significantly different from the “All for Jesus” text in “The Crucifixion.” Our hymn text was written two years later in 1889 by Mary Dagworthy James (1810-1883). Born in Trenton, New Jersey, converted at the age of 10, by the age of 13 she had begun teaching a class of girls in Sunday School in her Methodist Episcopal Church. About the time of her conversion, she wrote these words in her diary. “Glory to God in the highest! He has heard my prayers, and this night my soul rejoiced in that ‘perfect love which casteth out fear.’ O how happy I am! Where shall I begin to praise my Saviour for His goodness to me? It is now more than a year since I enlisted under the banner of Jesus, and He has kept me by His power until this time. I have had many temptations and trials, and sometimes have not lived as near to God as I ought to have done, but, blessed be His dear name, He has upheld me by His gracious hand, and I am at this moment a witness that His precious blood cleanseth from all sin.”
She became a prominent figure in the Wesleyan Holiness movement, and often led meetings at the Ocean Grove conference grounds. She was also active in the 19th century temperance movement. She wrote about 50 hymns and contributed numerous articles to holiness publications. It was for a New Year’s resolution in 1871 that she wrote the words of “All for Jesus,” reflecting on what she had done for the Lord in the previous year. As she described it, “I have written more, talked more, prayed more, and thought more for Jesus than in any previous year, and have had more peace of mind, resulting from a stronger and more simple faith in Him.”
She apparently did not write the words with Sparrow Simpson’s libretto in mind, nor thinking of Stainer’s oratorio, which she may not have ever hear. But the similarity in the themes led to the union of Stainer’s music with James’s poem/prayer. While many hymnals today use the tune CONSTANCY for her text, the Stainer music is a far better fit.
In stanza 1, it’s the word “all” that stands out in bold prominence. For those of us with a heart like hers (which is hopefully true of every believer!), every fiber of our spiritual being resonates with inexpressible devotion to the Lord Jesus. We desire to have every thought directed to Him and informed by Him, and are drive by a desire to exalt Him in His supremacy over all things, as Paul wrote in Colossians 1:18.
All for Jesus! All for Jesus! All my being’s ransomed pow’rs,
all my thoughts and words and doings, all my days and all my hours.
In stanza 2, the entire personhood of the singer is enlisted to exalt the Savior: hands, feet, eyes, and lips. As we sing the stanza, we ask that Jesus would guide us in what we do, where we go, what we see, and what we say. All of this flows out of a heart that is consumed by a passion for Him, a passion that influences everything about us and directs everyone around us to join us in a “joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8).
Let my hands perform His bidding, let my feet run in His ways;
let my eyes see Jesus only, let my lips speak forth His praise.
In stanza 3, a dramatic contrast is drawn between what “worldlings” treasure and count valuable and what gives fullness to their lives and what’s true for us. What they consider to be “gems of beauty” are nothing but “gilded toys of dust.” While they “boast of wealth and fame and pleasure” … financial success, importance in career reputation, and pursuit of entertainment … we instead put our trust in and find our greatest joy in Jesus only.
Worldlings prize their gems of beauty, cling to gilded toys of dust,
boast of wealth and fame and pleasure; only Jesus will I trust.
In stanza 4, we think of the phrase in another hymn: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus; look full in His wonderful face; and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.” When our eyes are “fixed on Jesus,” when our spirit’s vision is “so enchained” to Jesus, whatever hardships we may be troubled by or attractions we may be drawn to inevitably fade in comparison with the love and beauty when “looking at the Crucified.”
Since my eyes were fixed on Jesus, I’ve lost sight of all beside;
so enchained my spirit’s vision, looking at the Crucified.
Stanza 5 rises in a glorious climax of wonder and amazement, not only at who Jesus is (the infinitely glorious Son of God) and at what Jesus has done (became a curse for us on Calvary’s tree), but even more at the fact that it was for us that He so humbled Himself and suffered. The words become intensely personal at this point. How incredible that He did this for me, and more than that, that He “deigns to call me His beloved” (how astonishing!) and “lets me rest beneath His wings” (which should leave us speechless with joy).
O what wonder! How amazing! Jesus, glorious King of kings,
deigns to call me His beloved, lets me rest beneath His wings.
Here’s a link to watch and listen to the hymn as sung recently by a group of students, faculty, and staff from Covenant College.