Jesus Loves Me! This I Know

Perhaps the most beloved children’s hymn worldwide, “Jesus Loves Me! This I Know” was written by novelist, poet, and hymnodist Anna B. Warner (1827-1915) in 1859 and set to music — with the refrain “Yes, Jesus loves me … the Bible tells me so” — by William B. Bradbury (1816-1868) in 1861.

Its message is simple, yet profound — so much that the eminent Swiss theologian Karl Barth, when once asked to summarize his life’s work in theology in a single sentence, replied, “Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Bradbury’s tune is named “CHINA” in some hymnals, presumably because of its popularity with missionaries to that country in the later 19th and early 20th centuries.