Hymn #223: What Wondrous Love Is This | First Congregational Church

This old U.S. folk hymn can be traced to an 1811 camp-meeting songbook entitled A General Selection of the Newest and Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs Now in Use, published at Lynchburg, Virginia. By 1843, the text was published with this accompanying tune.

Camp meetings were religious revival services held throughout the United States in the nineteenth century. They were marked by lively singing and spirited preaching meant to convert those living sinful lives. Often the meetings were held in tents or outdoors.

The early U.S. tune WONDROUS LOVE appeared as the setting for this text and was attributed to “Christopher” in Walker’s Appendix to The Southern Harmony (1843). In a later tunebook, Christian Harmony, that individual was further identified as James Christopher of Spartanburg, South Carolina.

The early U.S. tune WONDROUS LOVE appeared as the setting for this text and was attributed to “Christopher” in Walker’s Appendix to The Southern Harmony (1843). In a later tunebook, Christian Harmony, that individual was further identified as James Christopher of Spartanburg, South Carolina.