The Heavenly Vision
song
"The Heavenly Vision", also known as "Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus" (the first line of its chorus), is a hymn written by Helen Howarth Lemmel. Lemmel was physically blind when she wrote this hymn. It was inspired by a tract entitled Focused, written by the missionary Isabella Lilias Trotter. The chorus is widely known, and has become a standard reprinted in many hymnals.
Lemmel first published the hymn in England as a pamphlet in 1918, and then included it in a 1922 collection called Glad Songs. It was included in a 1924 American collection entitled Gospel Truth in Song and was widely reprinted in other collections.
Versions
In 1989, Christian singer-songwriter Russ Taff sang it as part of a medley with "Near the Cross" and "My Jesus I Love Thee" on the various artists album Our Hymns.
In 1992 the Christian band Newsboys included the song (combined with "Where You Belong") on their album Not Ashamed and released a video of the song.
In 1999, Hillsong recorded the song and a video live in their album The Secret Place.
Michael W. Smith features the song on his 2001 live worship album Worship.
“The Heavenly Vision” enters the record as song. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Heavenly, Vision and song can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“The Heavenly Vision” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Heavenly, Vision and song provides the most credible route into that argument.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7739273. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1918, 1922, 1924 and 1989.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Heavenly Vision”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Heavenly Vision primary sources, The Heavenly Vision archive and Heavenly research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Heavenly Vision”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Heavenly Vision” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.