Be present at our table, Lord

Be present at our table, Lord. John Cennick* (1718-1755). From Cennick’s Sacred Hymns for the Children of God, in the Days of their Pilgrimage (1741), where it was entitled ‘Grace before Meat’ (‘Before Meat’ in the Second Edition, also 1741). It is a simple one-stanza grace, asking for a blessing on an earthly meal, and looking forward to a heavenly one. In Britain it was popular with the Primitive Methodists and Moravians; and it was also included in RCH (in the section ‘For Little Children’). In the USA it is still found in UMH, and in Canada in VU (in two versions, a modern one and the original). The Primitive Methodist Hymnal (1887, 1889) printed below it a modified version of Cennick’s...