Religion: A Pastor Ponders

Jesus Loves Me

by Pastor William Jenkins

November 11, 2005

In the mid nineteenth century two talented daughters of a New York lawyer, Anna and Susan Warner, lived on Constitution Island in the Hudson River at West Point, NY. Fort many years the sisters taught a Sunday-School class for West Point cadets in their home.

They were also writers. In 1860 they collaborated in writing a novel, “Say and Seal”. The main characters in the novel were John Linden, a young man; his fiancé, Faith Derrick; and a little boy, Johnny Fax.

Young Johnny was the victim of a lingering illness. Linden, Johnny’s Sunday-School teacher, and his fiancée spent a great deal of time with Johnny to provide for his needs.

Towards the end of the novel, Johnny asks Linden to pick him up in his arms and hold him. Clutching the feverish boy, Linden walked back and forth across the room because the swaying motion of the walking seemed to calm and relax him. Johnny looked calmly into Linden’s face and said quietly, “Sing.”

Rather than use a familiar hymn for this scene in the novel, Anna Warner wrote a hymn of four stanzas that has endured for a century and a half as a favorite of young and old alike. As he walked around the room Linden began to sing softly, “Jesus loves me this I know…” As the story continued, a few hours later, little Johnny died.

Many years later, Karl Barth, a world-renowned theologian, was asked what he considered to be the greatest theological discovery of his life. He smiled and replied, “Jesus loves me! This I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Is there any greater discovery to be made?

Next Sunday while you are in worship, open the song book or hymnal and look up “Jesus Loves Me”. At the bottom of the page you will see the name of Anna Warner, a novelist, song writer and an inspiration to theologians and little children.

League City United Methodist Church is located at 1411 Main Street (FM 518), one block east of Interstate 45. For information, call the church offices at 281-332-1557 or visit the website at

HYPERLINK - http://www.lcumc.org