Face to face with Christ my Saviour
Face to Face with Christ my Saviour is a hymn by American writer Carrie Breck, written in 1898. It is Breck's most well-known composition.
Background
Carrie Breck wrote the hymn while living in Vineland, New Jersey, a temperance town founded by Charles K. Landis. It was first sung publicly in 1899 by Grant Tullar at First Presbyterian Church in Vineland. Tullar was a singer and evangelist who had co-founded a music publishing company with Isaac H. Meredith in 1893.Words
The hymn is based on 1 Corinthians 13:12, which describes how a Christian's relationship with Jesus will be transformed on his return: "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."Tune
The hymn has consistently been sung to a tune composed by Tullar, as originally sung in 1899. Tullar originally composed the music for a different set of words, during an evangelistic campaign in Rutherford, New Jersey. In his book Written Because, Tullar described how the composition had been inspired by an "almost-empty jelly dish":This newly composed hymn, with the opening line "All for me the Savior suffered", was sung at a service in the Methodist Episcopal Church later that evening, by the minister Charles L. Mead. Tullar intended to revise the words the following day. In the morning, however, he received a letter from Breck containing a few of her poems, requesting him to compose the musical accompaniment. One of these poems was "Face to face with Christ my Savior", the words of which fitted the music Tullar had already written. Discarding his own words, Tullar decided to pair his tune with Breck's text.