Major Daniel Webster Whittle (November 22, 1840, Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts - March 4, 1901, Northfield, Massachusetts) was a 19th-century American gospel song lyricist, evangelist, and Bible teacher.

[1] Marrying Abbie Hanson in 1861 the night before he deployed with Company B of the 72d Illinois Infantry, he served in the American Civil War.

He was wounded at Vicksburg and marched with General William Tecumseh Sherman’s forces through Georgia.

Whittle wrote mostly under the pseudonym "El Nathan" although editors of later hymnals routinely credit his actual name.

I know not why God's wondrous grace To me He hath made known; Nor why—unworthy—Christ in love Redeemed me for His own.