By cool Siloam’s shady rill

By cool Siloam’s shady rill. Reginald Heber* (1783-1826). First published in the Christian Observer (April 1812), in a different metre, and beginning ‘By cool Siloam’s shady fountain’. It was entitled ‘Christ a Pattern for Children. Luke ii. 40’. It was rewritten in the present Common Metre, and published in Heber’s Hymns written and adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year (1827), for the First Sunday after Epiphany. It had six verses. Verses 3 and 4 have often been omitted: By cool Siloam’s shady rill The lily must decay; The rose, that blooms beneath the hill, Must shortly fade away. And soon, too soon, the wintry hour Of man’s maturer age Will shake the soul with...