Minister and song writer best known for the hymn, "My Faith Looks Up To Thee."

My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine! Now hear me while I pray, take all my guilt away, O let me from this day be wholly Thine!

May Thy rich grace impart Strength to my fainting heart, my zeal inspire! As Thou hast died for me, O may my love to Thee, Pure warm, and changeless be, a living fire!

While life's dark maze I tread, And griefs around me spread, be Thou my Guide; Bid darkness turn to day, wipe sorrow's tears away, Nor let me ever stray from Thee aside.

When ends life's transient dream, When death's cold sullen stream over me roll; Blest Savior, then in love, fear and distrust remove; O bear me safe above, a ransomed soul!

Ray Palmer wrote these lyrics, however, he kept them to himself until meeting Lowell Mason on a street in Boston, Massachusetts. When Mason asked him to write some thing for a new hymnal, Palmer dug out his old notes and produced these lyrics, written two years ear­lier. After taking the lyrics home and reading them, Mason composed this tune. Several days later he saw Palmer again and said: "You may live many years and do many good things, but I think you will be best known to posterity as the author of My Faith Looks Up to Thee."

Palmer attended Phillips Andover Academy (where he and Oliver Wendell Holmes were classmates) and Yale University. After Yale, he taught at a young ladies' school in New York, then at a girls' college in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1835, Palmer was ordained as a Congregational minister, and pastored in Bath, Maine, and Albany, New York, serving 15 years at each location. Around 1865, he be­came Secretary of the Congregation al Union.

Minister and song writer best known for the hymn, "My Faith Looks Up To Thee."

My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine! Now hear me while I pray, take all my guilt away, O let me from this day be wholly Thine!

May Thy rich grace impart Strength to my fainting heart, my zeal inspire! As Thou hast died for me, O may my love to Thee, Pure warm, and changeless be, a living fire!

While life's dark maze I tread, And griefs around me spread, be Thou my Guide; Bid darkness turn to day, wipe sorrow's tears away, Nor let me ever stray from Thee aside.

When ends life's transient dream, When death's cold sullen stream over me roll; Blest Savior, then in love, fear and distrust remove; O bear me safe above, a ransomed soul!

Ray Palmer wrote these lyrics, however, he kept them to himself until meeting Lowell Mason on a street in Boston, Massachusetts. When Mason asked him to write some thing for a new hymnal, Palmer dug out his old notes and produced these lyrics, written two years ear­lier. After taking the lyrics home and reading them, Mason composed this tune. Several days later he saw Palmer again and said: "You may live many years and do many good things, but I think you will be best known to posterity as the author of My Faith Looks Up to Thee."

Palmer attended Phillips Andover Academy (where he and Oliver Wendell Holmes were classmates) and Yale University. After Yale, he taught at a young ladies' school in New York, then at a girls' college in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1835, Palmer was ordained as a Congregational minister, and pastored in Bath, Maine, and Albany, New York, serving 15 years at each location. Around 1865, he be­came Secretary of the Congregation al Union.