FAITHFULNESS
William Marion Runyan (b. Marion, NX 1870; d. Pittsburg, KS, 1957) composed FAITHFULNESS for Chisholm’s text in Baldwin, Kansas, in 1923. Twenty years later Runyan wrote: Mr. Chisholm and I were devoted co-workers, and I wrote harmonies to some 20 or 25 of his poems. This particular poem held such an appeal that I prayed most earnestly that my tune might carry over its message in a worthy way, and the subsequent history of its use indicates that God answers prayer. Showing early musical promise, Runyan was a substitute church organist by the age of twelve. He became a Methodist minister in 1891 and served several churches in Kansas but turned to evangelism in 1903; he worked for the Central Methodist Conference for the next twenty years. Following that service, Runyan became pastor at the Federated Church at John Brown University, Sulphur Springs, Arkansas. Editor of Christian Workers Magazine, he also served the Moody Bible Institute and was an editor for Hope Publishing Company until his retirement in 1948. Runyan wrote a number of hymn texts, gospel songs, and hymn tunes. 730 WALK WITH GOD “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” became an unofficial school hymn at Moody Bible Institute, and it was featured in the Billy Graham crusades in England in 1954. Thus it attained popularity on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Sing this distinguished gospel music in harmony at a moderate pace. Liturgical Use: As a hymn of testimony to God’s covenant faithfulness; weddings; funerals.
Stanza Arc
The narrative or theological arc traced by this tune's stanzas: God's immutable nature and faithfulness → creation's witness to divine constancy → human experience of God's provision and grace