Horatius Bonar (1808–89) wrote this hymn in October 1855 for a Communion service at his elder brother John’s congregation, St. Andrew’s Free Church in Greenock, where Horatius customarily assisted once a year; John asked for a text to be read at the close of the service, and Horatius delivered it within a day or two. Because Bonar was a Calvinist of the Free Church of Scotland, his original sixth stanza read, “Too soon we rise; the symbols disappear,” reflecting a Reformed view of the Supper; later editors quietly altered “symbols” to “vessels,” letting the line be sung by those who confess Christ’s true presence in the bread and wine. The opening line, “Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face,” was never intended by its Calvinist author as a confession of the real presence, yet Lutheran congregations sing it as exactly that, unseen by the eye but grasped by faith. Originally published in ten stanzas under the heading “This do in remembrance of Me,” the hymn draws on Paul’s confession that God’s grace is sufficient for every need (2 Corinthians 12:9) and lifts the singer’s eyes from the earthly altar to “that glad feast above,” the Lamb’s own marriage feast of Revelation 19.