Elisha was educated in the public schools of Philadelphia and graduated in the scientific field from Central High School. Afterwards he took up the classics and completed a classical course in Union Seminary of the Evangelical Association. For eleven years he was connected with the Association's publishing house in Cleveland, Ohio.
Hoffman's musical education was obtained from his parents. While possessing natural musical abilities, Hoffman never attended a school of music. Any musical instruction Hoffman received came from his experiences at his father's church or at home.
His parents both had sweet voices and sang well. It was their custom in the hour of family worship, both morning and evening, to sing one or two hymns. At an early age, the children became familiar with these hymns and learned to love them and to feel their hallowing and refining power. Their lives were marvelously influenced by this little service of song in the home. A taste for sacred music was created and developed, and song became as natural a function of the soul as breathing was a function of the body.
Under the power of such an environment, Hoffman came to consciousness of a princely possession with which God had endowed him — the ability to express his intuitions and conceptions in meter and song. His inner being thrilled with inspirations, longing for expression, and he used the power with which God had clothed him in the production of the many songs which bear his name. His first composition was given to the world when he was eighteen years of age. Since then, heart, brain and pen have been very prolific in the birth of songs.
Hoffman married Susan M. Orwig who was 22 at the time. Hoffman was ordained by the Presbyterian Churches in 1873, at the age of 34. Two years later in 1876, his wife, Susan died, leaving him a single parent of their three sons.
In early 1879, at the age of 40, Hoffman remarried to Emma, a woman who was 26 years old. The couple had a baby boy in December of that same year, adding to the family's three other boys. At the time, they were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and had Hoffman's sister-in-law living with them and working as a dressmaker.
Hoffman held several pastoral positions in the Midwest. He pastored churches in both Cleveland and Grafton, Ohio, in the 1880s; moved to Benton Harbor, Michigan, and the First Presbyterian Church in the mid-1890s; and finished his ministry in Cabery, Illinois from 1911-22.
It is said that Hoffman was reading about the crucifixion of Jesus in his Bible, and he began to think about how God saved men from their sins by allowing Jesus to die on the cross. His heart was filled with such gratitude that he wanted to give God all the glory and honor for this wonderful gift. He quickly wrote the words of this poem. And while he provided the music for most of the hymns that he wrote during his lifetime, this time it was John Stockton, a musician and member of Hoffman's church, who set the poem to music.
Hoffman died in 1929 in Chicago, Illinois, and is buried there in Oak Woods Cemetery.
Enduringword.com: Jesus made peace for us through His work on the cross . . . The blood of the cross speaks to us of the real, physical death of Jesus Christ in our place, on our behalf, before God. That literal death in our place, and the literal judgment He bore on our behalf, is what saves.
Bibleref.com: Jesus' work in restoring man's relationship to God also restores the rest of creation. Jesus provided reconciliation through the cross . . . Just as a sacrifice was used in the Old Testament to make peace and reconciliation with God, Jesus served as a once-for-all sacrifice on behalf of the sins of all people. Those who accept His sacrifice and believe have eternal life.
Biblehub.com, Barnes’ Notes on the Bible: Christ was the source of all the life that [Paul] had. This cannot be taken literally that Christ had a residence in the apostle, but it must mean that His grace resided in him; that His principles actuated him: and that he derived all His energy, and zeal, and life from His grace. The union between the Lord Jesus and the disciple was so close that it might be said the one lived in the other. So the juices of the vine are in each branch, and leaf, and tendril, and live in them and animate them; the vital energy of the brain is in each delicate nerve - no matter how small - that is found in any part of the human frame. Christ was in him as it were the vital principle. All his life and energy were derived from Him.
Biblehub.com, Matthew Poole’s Commentary: Christ, by His
Spirit, liveth in me, having renewed and changed me, made me a new
creature, and begot new motions and inclinations in me. And though I live
in the flesh, yet I live by the faith of the Son of God; all my
natural, moral, and civil actions, being principled in faith, and done
according to the guidance of the rule of faith in Jesus Christ who loved me,
and gave Himself for me.
Biblehub.com, Benson Commentary: All of you, to whom I [Jesus]
now speak, are made clean from the guilt and power of sin through the Word
which I have spoken unto you, whose sanctifying influence has operated on your
hearts, and which, when applied by the Spirit, is the grand instrument of
purifying the soul. Abide in Me by the continued exercise of humble
faith and love, producing all holiness, by which alone you can continue to be
in Me; and I in you — And I will be in you by my Spirit, to nourish
your piety and virtue, and supply you, as from a living root, with every
necessary grace.
Enduringword.com: In saying you are already clean,
Jesus repeated an idea from earlier in the evening: that there is an initial
cleansing, and then a continuing cleansing. The word of God is a cleansing
agent. It condemns sin, it inspires holiness, it promotes growth, and it
reveals power for victory. Jesus continues to wash His people through the word.
Studylight.org, Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible: Here is another glimpse of that absolute perfection [completeness] which is the goal of all Christian living . . . Although unattainable by humans in their own strength, it will nevertheless be achieved in them and for them by means of their being "in Christ" and thereby partaking of the absolute perfection of the Savior Himself.
Studylight.org, Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible: He [John] professes
to have the love of God in his heart, and that love receives its completion or
filling up by obedience to the will of God. That obedience is the proper
carrying out, or the exponent of the love which exists in the heart. Love to
the Savior would be defective without that, for it is never complete without
obedience.
Biblehub.com, Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers: The acknowledgment of the glory of Christ is the acknowledgment of the glory of the Father, as the Source of Deity, manifested perfectly in Him. Our Lord’s repeated profession that His work on earth was to manifest the Father . . . His declaration that He had so done; and in the truth that His glory is the glory given of the Father.
Many of Hoffman’s hymns, express the reality of how the
sacrifice of Christ on the cross should impact our lives. When His blood
is applied to our sinful lives, we are forgiven and cleansed, we are saved from
sin, and He abides within. He takes us into His family, and He keeps us
clean. And having experienced this, our heart should cry out, just like
Hoffman's did, "Glory to His Name.”
