Jesus Saves

“Jesus Saves” is often known with its opening line “we have heard the joyful sound”. The hymn was written by Priscilla J. Owens. She was born on July 21, 1829 and lived in Baltimore, where she worked in the public-school sector. Most of her hymns were written for children’s services with many of her works appearing in the Methodist Protestant and the Christian Standard. “Jesus Saves” was written for a Sunday-school Mission Anniversary and appeared in the 1898 Scotch Church Hymnary. The words were adapted from The Huguenots opera and the chorus “Vive le Roi”. She died in 1907.