1. Face to face with Christ my Savior, Face to face what will it be When with rapture I behold Him, Jesus Christ who died for me. 2. Only faintly now I see Him, With the darkling veil between; But a blessed day is coming When His glory shall be seen. 3. What rejoicing in His presence When are banished grief and pain; When the crooked ways are straightened And the dark things shall be plain. 4. Face to face! O blissful moment! Face to face to see and know; Face to face with my Redeemer, Jesus Christ who loves me so. Chorus: Face to face I shall behold Him, Far beyond the starry sky; Face to face in all His glory, I shall see Him by and by.
Lyrics: Carrie Elizabeth Ellis Breck
Music: Grant Colfax Tullar
Tune: FACE TO FACE
Meter: 8.7.8.7. with Refrain
Carrie E. Breck, 1855–1934
The thoughts so well expressed in “Face to Face” were written by a busy wife and mother who by her own admission could not carry a tune. She had only a sense of rhythm. She said, “I penciled verses under all conditions; over a mending basket, with a baby on my arm, and sometimes even when sweeping or washing dishes, my mind moved in poetic meter.” Living with her husband and five daughters in Portland, Oregon, Carrie Breck was a deeply committed Christian and life-long member of the Presbyterian church.
Mrs. Breck occasionally sent some of her poems to a composer of gospel hymns, Grant Colfax Tullar, with the hope that he would set them to suitable music. Amazingly, when the verses of “Face to Face” arrived in the mail one day, Mr. Tullar had just completed the music for a song with words that did not fully please him. The lines of Mrs. Breck’s text, however, were a perfect fit for the music he had composed.