The Warner Sisters

Do you know the hymns Jesus loves me and Jesus bids us shine? I remember singing both as a child. (In what I now know is called a Mondegreen I thought the latter was called Jesus bits of shine and spoke of a sort of sparkly Jesus).

We still sing the former. Both have taken a certain amount of flak over the years. Anyway I was just over at Cyberhymnal and I discover that they were written by sisters. When their father Henry Warner got into financial difficulties they began to write for money and also did Bible studies for West point students. Anna Bartlett Warner (1827-1915) [right] wrote Jesus loves me and other hymns. See here. Susan Bogert Warner (1819-1885) [left] wrote Jesus bids us shine. See here. Both wrote novels and used pseudonyms. Anna wrote a biography of Susan. What exactly their theology was I do not know.