[In] the autumn of 1850…revival meetings were being held in the Thirtieth Street Methodist Church. Some of us went down every evening; and, on two occasions, I sought peace at the altar, but did not find the joy I craved, until one evening, November 20, 1850, it seemed to me that the light must indeed come then or never; and so I arose and went to the altar alone. After a prayer was offered, they began to sing the grand old consecration hymn,

Alas, and did my Saviour bleed, and did my Sovereign die?

And when they reached the third line of the fourth stanza,

Here Lord, I give myself away,

my very soul was flooded with a celestial light. I sprang to my feet, shouting hallelujah, and then for the first time I realized that I had been trying to hold the world in one hand and the Lord in the other. – Frances Jane Crosby