John Henry Sammis

John Henry Sammis was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1846. In early adulthood he moved to Logansport, Indiana, entered business, and became active in the YMCA. His work in the association helped redirect him toward Christian ministry. He studied at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1880. He subsequently served congregations in the American Midwest, including churches in Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, and Minnesota.

Sammis became a productive writer of gospel-song texts, with Hymnary indexing more than one hundred works under his name. “Trust and Obey” was among his earliest and most enduring hymns. Daniel B. Towner later recalled that he sent Sammis a brief testimony he had heard at a Dwight L. Moody meeting in Brockton, Massachusetts; Sammis developed the idea into the refrain and five stanzas, and Towner supplied the tune. The song first appeared in Hymns New and Old in 1887.

In 1909 Sammis joined the faculty of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, later known as Biola, where he taught Bible until near the end of his life. He died in Los Angeles in 1919.