Hymns of the Faith

Tis Not That I Did Chose Thee

1 ‘Tis not that I did choose Thee,
For, Lord, that could not be;
This heart would still refuse Thee,
But Thou hast chosen me;
Thou from the sins that stained me
Hast washed and set me free,
And to this end ordained me
That I should live to Thee.

2 ‘Twas sovereign mercy called me
And taught my opening mind;
The world had else enthralled me,
To heavenly glories blind;
My heart owns none above Thee;
For Thine own self I thirst;
This knowing, if I love Thee,
That Thou didst love me first.

Penned by: Josiah Conder
Born: Sep­tem­ber 17, 1789, Fal­con Street, Lon­don, Eng­land.
Died: De­cem­ber 27, 1855, Hamp­stead, Mid­dle­sex, Eng­land.
Buried: Ab­ney Park Cem­e­te­ry, Lon­don, Eng­land.

Son of an en­grav­er and book­sell­er, Con­der lost his right eye at age five, due to a bad small­pox vac­cin­a­tion. How­ever, his na­tive talents led him to be a suc­cess­ful au­thor, ed­i­tor and pub­lish­er. He ed­it­ed The Ec­lec­tic Re­pub­lic and The Pa­tri­ot, and wrote books on a wide va­ri­e­ty of sec­u­lar and re­li­gious sub­jects. A mem­ber of the Con­gre­ga­tion­al­ist de­nom­in­a­tion, his Con­gre­ga­tion­al Hymn-Book sold 90,000 co­pies in its first se­ven years. His other works in­clude:

• The Wi­thered Oak, 1805
• The Re­ver­ie, 1811
• The Star in the East, with Other Po­ems Chief­ly Re­li­gious and Do­mes­tic, 1824
• Sac­red Po­ems, Do­mes­tic Po­ems, and Mis­cel­lan­e­ous Po­ems, 1824
• The Choir and the Or­a­to­ry, 1836
• Hymns of Praise, Pray­er, and De­vout Me­di­ta­tion, 1856

His grandfather, Dr. John Condor, was a noted Dissenter clergyman. His father, Thomas, was also a strong Nonconformist and so Josiah grew up in this environment. At five years of age, smallpox blinded him in his right eye. Fearing the possible loss of his other eye, he was sent to Hackney for electrical treatment. His physician became his teacher, and carried him through the fundamentals of French, Latin and other studies. At fifteen he entered into his father’s bookstore as an assistant. In 1810 we find him in co-operation with Ann and Jane Taylor and Eliza Thomas (who later became his wife) and some others in publishing a book called “The Associate Minstrels”. It secured a second edition in 1812. He also edited a newspaper called the “Patriot” but was never out of financial problems, yet he went on encouraged by his Lord. He once had a fall from his horse, which laid him aside in much pain and suffering, but at that time he could write, “Fix my heart on things above; make me happy in Thy love”. It is not known how Mr. Condor was brought to Christ, but there is definite evidence of his confidence in the sovereign grace of God in the hymns that he wrote. He went to be with Christ at St. John’s Wood, on Dec. 27th. 1855.

(information found @ www.cyberhymnal.org, www.stempublishing.com)