The hymn “By Simple Faith” was written by Edgar P. Stites.
The hymn first appared in an 1881 hymnal.
Prehaps it was inspired by Ephesians 2:8-9, “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Sites was born on March 22, 1836 in Cape May, New Jersey. He served in Pennsylvania in the Civil War and worked as a riverboat pilot. He also served as a missionary in the Dakota Territory for a while.
In 1860, he married Maria Louisa Fantamer. After her death, he married Sarah Elizabeth Edmunds in 1867.
Stites also wrote the hymns “Bulah Land” and “Trusting Jesus.” He was the cousin to hymn writer Eliza Edmund Hewitts.