A glory gilds the sacred page
A glory gilds the sacred page. William Cowper* (1731-1800).
This hymn begins with the second stanza of ‘The Spirit breathes upon the word’* (for the text see the entry on that hymn). It is annotated here because it had a vigorous life alongside the ‘parent’ hymn. In Britain it was in the Hymn Book of the United Presbyterian Church (1852), and two Methodist books: the Primitive Methodist Hymnal (1887, 1889), and the United Methodist Free Churches’ Methodist Free Church Hymns with Tunes (1889). In the 20th century Ira D. Sankey* used it in Sacred Songs and Solos (1903), and the Wesleyan Methodists in The Peoples Hymnary (1905).
In the USA it was extremely popular, found in over three hundred...
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MLA style (see MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 3rd Ed.)
. "A glory gilds the sacred page."
The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press. Web. 6 Oct. 2026.<
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/a/a-glory-gilds-the-sacred-page>.
Chicago style (see The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Ed.)
. "A glory gilds the sacred page."
The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press, accessed October 6, 2026,
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/a/a-glory-gilds-the-sacred-page.