Hymns
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Joy to the world, the Lord is come
While staying with family in Hackney in November 2024, my wife, Sheila, and I visited the memorial to Isaac Watts in Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, which has recently been restored to its original condition. Watts was born in 1674...
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Raise the song of harvest home
Although Henry Alford was born in London, he was from a Somerset family which had, for five generations, served as clergy in the Church of England. Henry was a remarkable child: before the age of ten he wrote several lengthy...
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University Professor who wrote a simple but profound hymn
Edwin Hatch (1835-89) was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, became a Professor of Classics in Toronto, before becoming vice-principal of St Mary Hall, Oxford, in 1867, rector of Purleigh in Essex in 1883, and then reader in Ecclesiastical History at...
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A rousing mosaic of Scripture
The hymn And can it be is a classic statement of joy and enthusiasm from a newly converted believer. On Whit Sunday, 21st May 1738, Charles, then aged 31, was very ill with pleurisy and feared he might die. While...
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A thing most wonderful
William Walsham How (1823-97) was educated at Shrewsbury School and Wadham College, Oxford, where he graduated in Classics before reading Theology at Durham. A small man who needed a platform in the pulpit so that the congregation could see...
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Dudley-Smith: How is it between you and Jesus Christ?
On 15th August 2021, the set Common Worship Gospel reading was Luke 1:46-55, the Magnificat. This reminded me of this story: in May 1961, a 34 year-old man living in Blackheath, London, was sent a review copy of the...
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Total commitment
Frances Ridley Havergal was, by all accounts, a remarkable woman: linguist (speaking French and German and reading Hebrew and New Testament Greek), musician, poet, athlete, swimmer and mountain climber. She was also a devout Christian with an intense sense of commitment to God which...
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Sights that dazzle
When John Ernest Bode’s daughter and two sons were confirmed in 1866 he wanted the service to include a memorable hymn. Presumably because he couldn’t find one which was quite good enough, he decided to write his own. The...
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