Lelia Naylor Morris, the hymn writer behind "Mrs. C. H. Morris"

About Mrs. C. H. Morris

Morris was born on 15 April 1862 in Pennsville, Morgan County, Ohio, and grew up near Malta on the Muskingum River. She ran a millinery shop in McConnelsville with her mother and sister, and in 1881 married Charles H. Morris. Both were active in the Methodist Episcopal Church and attended camp meetings at Sebring and Mount Vernon, the setting in which much American holiness hymnody of the period was tested and sung.

She began writing hymns in the 1890s. Sources credit her with more than a thousand texts and tunes, much of it written while she kept house. Her sight failed in 1913, when she was fifty-one; her son built a blackboard twenty-eight feet long with oversized staff lines so she could continue to compose. Her best-known hymns include "Nearer, Still Nearer" (1898), "Let Jesus Come into Your Heart" and "Sweeter as the Years Go By" (1912).

The catalog holds 163 scores, 68 with lyrics, about 103 minutes in all. Only nineteen sit at the easiest level; most are moderately difficult, which fits a repertoire built on part-writing and refrain choruses rather than unison song. "The stranger of galilee" is by far the most-viewed title, followed by "Nothing but the blood of Jesus in my soul" and "I am standing now on the promises of God". Morris moved to Auburn, New York, around 1928 and died there on 23 July 1929.

Listening and playing notes

Expect gospel-song harmony rather than hymnbook plainness: repeated choruses, chromatic inner parts and a strong sense of a text being dramatised. The Pentecost and holiness titles often build to a refrain over a rising bass line. Singers should check the catalog's key choices, since these settings were pitched for congregational comfort rather than for a trained choir. Pianists can treat the printed accompaniment as an outline and add the passing chords and fill-ins that the period's songbooks assumed.

Selected scores

1. The Stranger of Galilee

   Her most-viewed catalog title, a narrative gospel song that follows Christ through the Gospel of John.

2. Nothing but the Blood of Jesus in My Soul

   A holiness chorus that locates assurance in the cleansing blood rather than in religious feeling.

3. I Am Standing Now on the Promises of God

   A faith-standing chorus built on the list of divine promises.

4. In the Misty Days of Yore

   A reflective narrative hymn that looks back to the early days of faith.

5. I've Enlisted for Life in the Army of the Lord

   A revival march that casts the Christian life as military enlistment.

6. The Power That Fell at Pentecost

   A Pentecost hymn linking the church's founding outpouring to present-day revival.

7. Make Me a Blessing, Dear Savior, I Pray

   A prayer for usefulness, set in the modest four-part idiom she used for choir and congregation.

8. Tho’ We’ve No Abiding City Here

   A pilgrimage hymn built on Hebrews 13:14, its text setting the believer's journey against a heavenly home.

9. We Today May Have the Power Which They Had at Pentecost

   A revival hymn claiming the Acts 2 experience for the present congregation.

10. Fully Surrendered, Lord Divine

    A consecration hymn in which the singer yields every part of life to God.