So Send I You

By Margaret Clarkson

Lyrics

The Negative:

So send I you to labor unrewarded,
To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,
To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing-
So send I you to toil for Me alone.

So send I you to bind the bruised and broken,
O’er wand’ring souls to work, to weep, to wake,
To bear the burdens of a world aweary-
So send I you to suffer for My sake.

So send I you to loneliness and longing,
With heart ahung’ring for the loved and known,
Forsaking home and kindred, friend and dear one-
So send I you to know My love alone.

So send I you to leave your life’s ambition,
To die to dear desire, self-will resign,
To labor long, and love where men revile you-
So send I you to lose your life in Mine.

So send I you to hearts made hard by hatred,
To eyes made blind because they will not see,
To spend, tho’ it be blood, to spend and spare not-
So send I you to taste of Calvary.

The Positive:
1 So send I you- by grace made strong to triumph
O’er hosts of hell, o’er darkness, death, and sin,
My name to bear, and in that name to conquer-
So send I you, My victory to win.

2 So send I you- to take to souls in bondage
The word of truth that sets the captive fee,
To break the bonds of sin, to loose dearth’s fetters-
So send I you, to bring the lost to Me.

3 So send I you- My strength to know in weakness,
My joy in grief, my perfect peace in pain,
To prove My power, My grace, My promised presence-
So send I you, eternal fruit to gain.

4 So Send I you – to bear My cross with patience,
And then one day with joy to lay it down
To hear My voice, “Well done, My faithful servant –
Come, share My throne, My Kingdom, and My crown!”
As the Father hath sent Me, so send I You.”

Bible Reference

John 20:21

About This Hymn

“So Send I You” has often been described as the greatest missionary hymn of the twentieth century. Its stirring lyrics, filled with self-sacrifice, devotion, and spiritual calling, have made it a staple at missionary conferences and services around the world.

The hymn was born not in the excitement of a missionary field abroad, but in the cold isolation of northern Canada. In 1935, Margaret Clarkson, a young Canadian schoolteacher, found herself teaching in the remote mining camps of Ontario, first in a lumber camp and later in the gold-mining town of Kirkland Lake—over 1,400 miles from home. Work was scarce, and though these were the only jobs available to her, they brought deep loneliness.

Clarkson later described her seven years in the north as a time marked by “loneliness of every kind”—mental, cultural, and above all, spiritual. The churches around her had adopted modernist theology, and she found no fellowship with other born-again Christians. In the midst of this spiritual desolation, she found solace and strength in Scripture.

One night, while reading the Gospel of John, she came across the words of Jesus in John 20:21: “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” Though she had once longed to be a missionary overseas, her physical limitations made that dream impossible. Yet, in that moment, she understood that this—her isolated, difficult post—was her mission field. God had sent her there with purpose.

Clarkson was no stranger to poetry and verse, having written throughout her life. Inspired by her reflection on the verse and her own experience, she wrote the lyrics to what would become So Send I You. The hymn captures the solemn beauty of a life given fully to Christ’s mission—whether on foreign soil or in the quiet wilderness of one’s own homeland.

It wasn't until 1954 that the hymn was published, but it quickly gained wide recognition. Its resonance with missionaries and Christians in all walks of life stems from its honest portrayal of service to Christ: a path of sacrifice, suffering, yet also deep joy and eternal purpose.

Later in life, Clarkson revisited the hymn and wrote an alternate version that emphasized the victory and joy of Christian service more clearly. Both versions reflect the full spectrum of Christian discipleship—marked by surrender, but undergirded by Christ’s peace and commission.