William M. Runyan

William M. Runyan (1870-1957) was an Christian composer from the United States who wrote the music to the well-known hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness.

In 1870, William Marion Runyan was born in Marion, New York to a Methodist minister Rev. William White Runyan (born 1828) and his wife Hannah (Orcutt) Runyan (born 1839). At age fourteen, Runyan and his family moved to Marion, Kansas. As a youth, Runyan served as a church organist and graduated from Marion High School in Kansas. Runyan was ordained as a Methodist minister at age twenty-one and then pastored various congregations in Kansas.

Runyan attended Northwestern University for three years from 1895 to 1898. Starting in 1915 Runyan began writing gospel songs with the encouragement of D.B. Towner of the Moody Bible Institute.

In 1923 Runyan moved from Wichita to Chicago. From 1924 to 1926 Runyan was affiliated with John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas pastoring the Federated Church, and editing the Christian Workers' Magazine. Runyan then moved back to Chicago where he worked with the Moody Bible Institute, and he worked as editor for Hope Publishing Company, co-editing "The Service Hymnal" with Gordon Shorney.

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Great Is Thy Faithfulness

Great Is Thy Faithfulness is a popular Christian hymn written by Thomas Chisholm (1866–1960) with music composed by William M. Runyan (1870–1957) in Baldwin, Kansas, U.S..

The phrase "great is thy faithfulness" comes from the Old Testament Book of Lamentations 3:23. These exact words occur in both the King James Bible and the Revised Standard Version.

History

Thomas O. Chisholm wrote the poem in 1923 about God's faithfulness over his lifetime. Chisholm sent the song to William Runyan in Kansas, who was affiliated with both the Moody Bible Institute and Hope Publishing Company. Runyan set the poem to music, and it was published that same year by Hope Publishing Company and became popular among church groups. The Biblical lyrics reference Lamentations 3:22-23. The song was exposed to wide audiences after becoming popular with Dr. William Henry Houghton of the Moody Bible Institute and Billy Graham, who used the song frequently on his international crusades. Since the middle 20th century, this hymn has been the university hymn of Cairn University which was formerly Philadelphia Biblical University and prior to that Philadelphia College of Bible, founded in 1913.

Great

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Faithfulness

Faithfulness is the concept of unfailingly remaining loyal to someone or something and putting that loyalty into consistent practice, regardless of extenuating circumstances. It may be applied to a husband or wife who, in a sexually exclusive marriage, does not engage in sexual relationships outside of the marriage, a customer at a restaurant who regularly dines there, or even to God himself with regard to his perpetual love towards his children that is not dependent on their worthiness. It could also mean keeping to one's promises no matter the prevailing circumstances. Literally, it is the state of being full of faith in the somewhat archaic sense of steady devotion to a person, thing or concept.

Its etymology is distantly related to that of fidelity; indeed, in modern electronic devices, a machine with high "fidelity" is considered "faithful" to its source material, whereas a spouse who, inside a sexually exclusive relationship, has sexual relations outside of marriage could equally be considered as being "unfaithful" as having committed "infidelity".