University Professor who wrote a simple but profound hymn

Posted in Blog, Hymns

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 Oxford in 1884. He preached a series of Bampton Lectures on The Organisation of the Early Christian Churches. But perhaps he is best remembered for this hymn which he wrote in 1878:

Breathe on me, Breath of God,

Fill me with life anew,

That I may love what thou dost love,

And do what thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,

Until my heart is pure;

Until with thee I will one will,

To do and to endure.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,

Till I am wholly thine;

Until this earthly part of me

Glows with thy fire divine.

Breathe on me, Breath of God:

So shall I never die,

But live with thee the perfect life

Of thine eternity.

Hatch gave his hymn the title ‘Spiritus Dei’ thus linking the image of ‘breath’ with that of the Holy Spirit. In Hebrew, ruach (pronounced roo-akh) is the word for spirit, breath, or wind. And so Hatch’s hymn takes the idea of the creative breath of God, from Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (KJV) and links it with the idea of new birth as explained by Jesus to Nicodemus in John 3:6-8: That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (ESV). And so Hatch’s hymn moves through the various stages of Christian experience and discipline as the breath of God brings new life and love, purity and obedience, surrender and inspiration, and finally eternal life.

The hymn may be sung to a variety of tunes but my favourite is Trentham, by Robert Jackson, a contemporary of Hatch. Jackson’s tune seems to me to match the words perfectly. I doubt if many people remember Edwin Hatch’s Bampton Lectures these days but his fine hymn will live on. If we sing the hymn prayerfully it is demanding yet transformative.