Charlotte Elliott (18 March 1789 – 22 September 1871) was an English poet, hymn writer and editor. 

Charlotte, third daughter of Charles Elliott, a silk merchant of Clapham and Brighton and sister to Henry Venn Elliott, our founder, was highly educated, and developed, at an early age, a great passion for music and art. She was continuously told by different pastors at the many churches that she visited to pray more, study the Bible more and to perform more noble deeds. 

A severe sickness in 1821 led her to feel a need for a personal Saviour. About this time, the Rev. Dr Cesar Malan of Geneva, who was on a visit to her father, asked her whether she was at peace with God. A few days later she called on Dr Malan and committed her life to Christ. 

The beginning, on 9 May 1822, of their lifelong friendship was always regarded, according to her sister, as "the birthday of her soul to true spiritual life and peace". 

Her health was improved by a visit to Normandy, but in 1829 she once more became an almost helpless sufferer, with only occasional intervals of relief. 

In 1835, about twelve years after her conversion, HVE was raising funds for a school for the daughters of clergymen – our own St. Mary's Hall. 

Unable to help with the project, Charlotte felt useless, but then she remembered the words of Cesar Malan (see http://nethymnal.org/htm/j/u/justasam.htm) and decided to write a song for others who were in her situation. The words she wrote became one of the greatest soul-winning songs in the history of hymns. 

She contributed several hymns to a selection of Psalms and Hymns by HVE, published in 1835 when she also took on the editorial supervision of The Christian Remembrancer Pocket Book, an Annual, and in 1836 of the Invalid's Hymn Book – works previously conducted by a friend, Miss Harriet Kiernan, who was then in the last stages of consumption.  Her "Morning and Evening Hymns for a Week" was printed privately in 1837, and published in 1842. 

In spite of her illness, Charlotte lived to be 82. She died on September 22, 1871. After her death, more than a thousand letters were found among her papers, written by people telling her how her hymn had touched their lives. 

We have, for instance, mentioned elsewhere that Dora Wordsworth, daughter of William Wordsworth, asked to have the lines read to her again and again on her death bed. 

Billy Graham used it as the invitation in his crusades.

What is more, in her own lifetime Charlotte learned that copies of the poem were being sold and the money donated for St. Mary's Hall, the very project she had thought she could not help! 

She is commemorated, with her brother, HVE in the wording of a Blue Plaque at the gates to St Mary’s Hall, Brighton, unveiled in 2013.  Click here to view the article .