The song was written as a direct response to the schism within the Church of South Africa caused by John William Colenso, first Bishop of Natal.

The controversy is alluded to in the hymn's fourth verse: "Though with a scornful wonder men see her sore oppressed, by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed."

[2] The words also served as inspiration for Rudyard Kipling's 1896 poem, Hymn Before Action, during his time in Africa.

[3] The hymn originally had seven stanzas, of which the first runs: The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord; she is his new creation by water and the Word: from heav'n he came and sought her to be his holy bride; with his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died.

In 1885, three more stanzas were added to the original seven for use as an ecclesiastical processional hymn in Salisbury Cathedral; this version was used again during the 1888 Lambeth Conference.