William Reed Newell

William Reed Newell was an American pastor, evangelist, Bible teacher, author, and hymn writer born at Savannah, Ohio, on May 22, 1868. He graduated from the College of Wooster in 1891 and pursued theological study at Princeton Theological Seminary and Oberlin Theological Seminary. He served as pastor of Bethesda Congregational Church in Chicago before joining Moody Bible Institute in 1895 as assistant superintendent under R. A. Torrey.

Newell became known especially for large interdenominational Bible classes in cities including Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, and Toronto. His teaching ministry later produced widely circulated expository works such as “Romans Verse by Verse,” “The Book of the Revelation,” and “Hebrews Verse by Verse.” His writing strongly emphasized the grace of God, the cross of Christ, and salvation received through faith.

“At Calvary” was written during Newell’s Moody Bible Institute period. The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology and later hymn-story sources relate that the words came together as he was going to teach, that he wrote them down quickly, and that colleague Daniel B. Towner supplied the music. Newell’s career therefore joined two forms of evangelical teaching: extended biblical exposition in the classroom and compact gospel theology in congregational song.