Cleland Boyd McAfee

Born in Missouri in 1866, Cleland Boyd McAfee became an American Presbyterian minister, theologian, and hymn writer. He is most closely associated with “Near to the Heart of God,” a hymn that has endured for generations and is often noted for the calm, consoling spirit at its center.

McAfee also had strong ties to Park College, the school founded by his father, and later studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Alongside his ministry and teaching, he wrote hymns and religious works that reflected a thoughtful, pastoral voice.

Accounts of his life frequently note that “Near to the Heart of God” was written after the deaths of two young nieces from diphtheria, a tragedy that helps explain the hymn’s deep sense of tenderness and refuge. He died in 1944.