The very first of nearly six hundred hymns written by Horatius Bonar (1808–89), this text was composed while Bonar served as a young assistant minister in the Scottish coastal town of Leith, intended simply as wholesome verse for the children of his Sunday School. Its history carries a heartbreaking irony: Bonar wrote the words years before he had a family of his own, including the line "I lay my griefs on Jesus, my burdens and my cares," never knowing how directly they would apply when five of his own children later died young. First published in 1843 under the superscription of Isaiah 53:5, "He was wounded for our transgressions," the hymn was later titled simply The Substitute, underscoring that Christ bore our sin fully in our place. Each stanza opens with a plain declaration, "I lay my sins," "I lay my wants," "I rest my soul on Jesus," and each line that follows answers the child’s unspoken "why?": because Christ bore it, healed it, and delivers from it. Sung as the Sacrament is prepared, the hymn hands over sin, want, and care alike to the same Christ who is about to be given and shed for us.