Emily Divine Wilson

Emily Divine Wilson was born in Philadelphia on May 24, 1865, and died there on June 23, 1942. She was married to Methodist Episcopal minister John G. Wilson and was often identified in early songbooks as Mrs. J. G. Wilson. Reliable biographical details about her education and formal musical training are limited, but contemporary Methodist reports establish that she was an active singer: The Christian Advocate described her participation in services in Norristown in 1903 and in an evangelistic campaign in Trenton in 1905, and associated her singing with Ocean Grove.

Wilson composed the music published with Hewitt's text in Pentecostal Praises in 1898. Later hymnals usually call the tune HEAVEN, and hymn indexes attribute several other sacred tunes and texts to her, though none has circulated as widely as this one. A later tradition places Wilson and Hewitt together at the Ocean Grove camp meeting, possibly through their mutual connection with John R. Sweney. That setting is historically plausible, but the exact meeting and composition session are not secured by a contemporary firsthand account.