Take the Name of Jesus with You

Scripture and Biblical Echoes

The Beauty of the Hymn

Lydia Baxter, 1870. Tune PRECIOUS NAME, William H. Doane, 1871. The central image—a name that can be ‘taken’ along like a possession or companion—makes Christ’s authority unusually concrete and portable. That helps explain why, in childhood, I experienced the name as felt protection as well as doctrine.

My Reflection

I have always felt the name of Jesus as something portable—carried into danger, uncertainty, travel and ordinary life. The hymn is joyful, but beneath its brightness is the serious assurance that divine companionship is not confined to church walls. In youth, simply saying the name of Jesus could feel like a force against evil, almost a source of physical courage. The hymn preserves that sense of portability: one does not need a sanctuary in order to pray the name or remember whose company one keeps.