Elizabeth Prentiss

Elizabeth Prentiss (1818-1878) suffered from chronic insomnia and debilitating migraines. She once wrote to a friend that she “scarcely knew a moment free from pain.” She lived with her husband George in New Bedford, Massachusetts where he served as pastor of Trinity Congregational Church. Within a span of five months in 1852, their four-year-old son Eddy died of meningitis as did their newborn daughter Bessie shortly after birth. Elizabeth was understandably devastated, yet she also became deeply attuned to other people’s suffering and grief. She even titled one of her books, “How Service has Changed into Sympathy.” She once wrote to a grieving friend, “I trust that in this hour of sorrow, you have with you the Presence, before which sorrow and sighing flee away. God is left. Christ is left, sickness, accident and death cannot touch you there. Is this not a blissful thought?”
Four years later, Elizabeth was reflecting on the popular hymn, “Nearer my God, to Thee” as well as a line from George’s sermon, “Love can keep the soul from going blind.” She wrote a prayer that evening in her journal and returned to it thirteen years later. George encouraged her to complete the last verse and publish it. The leaflet somehow made it to William Doane, a Cincinnati businessman who composed hymn tunes in his spare time. He added a tune and published “More Love to Thee” in an 1870 hymn book. Most hymn books omit the third verse, which is regrettable, given that it’s the most poignant reference to her personal circumstances in her four-verse hymn. After her death, George published “The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss” which included her notation, “To love Christ is the deepest need, the constant cry of my soul…Out in the woods, and in my bed and out driving, when I am happy and busy, and when I am sad and idle, the whispers keep going up for more love, more love, more love.” I count fourteen “More love to thee” references in her prayer: