Come with us, O blessed Jesus

Come with us, O blessed Jesus. John Henry Hopkins, Jr.* (1820-1891). First published in the Second Edition, enlarged, of Hopkins’s Carols, Hymns, and Songs (New York, 1872). It was entitled ‘Retrocessional for Christmas Day’; it provides a fine conclusion to a service on that day. After having been neglected for many years, the first stanza of this hymn was printed in H40, with a tune by Johann Schop*, sometimes called WERDE MUNTER, after the hymn by Johann Rist*, ‘Werde munter, mein Gemüte’*, but known world-wide for its setting of ‘Jesu, joy of man’s desiring’ by Johann Sebastian Bach*. This tune can accommodate the irregularities of metre in the four stanzas: Come with us, O blessed...