Brethren, we have met to worship

Brethren, we have met to worship. George Askins* (d. 1816).  Recent research by Richard Hulan* has clarified the authorship of this hymn and its early sources. Credit for the first printing goes to John J. Harrod who included it in his Social and Camp-Meeting Hymns for the Pious (Baltimore, 1817), a year after Askins’ death (Steel and Hulan, 2010, p. 67). It is possible that it was published in an earlier collection during Askins’ lifetime, but this cannot be verified. In a parallel course of events, Askins’ widow, following his death in 1816, provided George Kolb, a close neighbor and compiler of the Spiritual Songster: Containing a Variety of Camp-Meeting, and Other Hymns (Frederick-Town,...