The Story Behind the Song
Arabella Katherine “Kate” Hankey (1834-1911) was born into a wealthy English family which was part of the Clapham sect in London (upper-class evangelical Anglicans who combined action with their beliefs—working to abolish slavery, supporting Bible societies, promoting prison reform in England and missionary activity in foreign lands, and assisting the poor through religious instruction and philanthropy). Kate did her part by organizing and teaching Bible classes for the girls and young women who worked in the factories, and spent some time as a nurse in South Africa, caring for her brother.
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But in her early thirties, she herself became severely ill and had a long period of convalescence during which she authored an extensive poem entitled “The Old, Old Story.” (Click here to read that poem.) The first part, “The Story Wanted,” was written from the perspective of a “sinner whom Jesus came to save” who asks for someone to “tell me the old, old story…of Jesus and His Glory, of Jesus and His Love.” It consists of eight stanzas of four lines each and was first published in January, 1866. It is the source for the hymn, “Tell Me the Old, Old Story.”
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The second part, “The Story Told,” was much longer than the first—47 four-line stanzas! Published in November of that same year, it was written from the viewpoint of a Christian answering the request of the sinner in the first section of the poem. It is the basis for “I Love to Tell the Story.”
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Hankey started the saga of salvation with Adam and Eve and how, when they sinned, “at once the Lord declared how man, though lost and ruined, might after all be spared!” She wrote:
For one of Eve’s descendants,
Not sinful, like the rest,
Should spoil the work of Satan,
And man be saved and blest!
He should be son of Adam,
But Son of God as well,
And bring a full salvation
From sin, and death, and hell.
She then retold the Christmas narrative of Jesus’ birth, ending with:
He whom the Father promised,
So many ages past,
Had come to save poor sinners;
Yes, He had come at last!
For several stanzas, Kate recapped Jesus’ earthly life and ministry—healing the sick, raising the dead, touching lives—until:
This gentle, holy Jesus,
Without a spot or stain,
By wicked hands was taken,
And crucified, and slain!
But Hankey went beyond merely narrating the facts of the crucifixion. She told why Jesus died:
He had become our surety;
And what we could not pay,
He paid instead, and for us,
On that one dreadful day.
For our sins He suffered;
For our sins He died;
And not for ours only,
But all the world’s beside!
And now, the work is finished!
The sinner’s debt is paid!
Because on Christ the Righteous
The sin of all was laid.
Oh, wonderful redemption!
God’s remedy for sin!
The door of Heav’n is open,
And you may enter in!
The poem continues with stanzas that speak of Jesus’ resurrection, ascension and reign in heaven. But for Hankey, the old, old story is not meant for simply information—it’s intended for transformation! She extended an invitation to those without Christ—
Do you at heart believe it?
Do you believe it’s true,
And meant for every sinner,
And, therefore, meant for you?
Then take this great salvation,
For Jesus loves to give!
Believe! and you receive it!
Believe! and you shall live!
—and ended with a commission for followers of Jesus:
And if this simple message
Has now brought peace to you,
Make known the old, old story,
For others need it, too.
Since its first publication in 1866, “I Love to Tell the Story” has appeared in over 1,100 hymnals and collections. And although Kate Hankey has been in Heaven amid “scenes of glory” for well over a hundred years, generations of Christians have joined their voices with hers to sing a “new, new song” (Revelation 5:9) that continues the “old, old story.”
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Anastasia Music 