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A little child the Saviour came. William Robertson, of Monzievaird* (1820-1864).
This hymn for Holy Baptism with its attractive first line was published in the Church of Scotland's Hymns for Public Worship (1861), and subsequently in the Scottish Hymnal (1870). It was also used by the Presbyterian Church of England, and is found in Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship (1867), and in Church Praise (1884). In JJ, p. 2, it was reported that it had become more popular in America than in Britain,...
CARMICHAEL, Alexander. b. Lismore, Argyll, 1 December 1832; d. Edinburgh, 6 June 1912. He worked for a time in the customs and excise division of the Scottish Civil Service, with periods in the Highlands and Islands. He married Mary Frances MacBean in 1868, and they lived on South Uist until 1882, when they moved to Edinburgh, where they became the centre of a Celtic revival.
Alexander was the compiler of Carmina Gadelica*, first published in 1900, a two-volume collection of verses, including...
MacMILLAN, Alexander. b. Edinburgh, 19 October 1864; d. Toronto, 5 May 1961. Born and educated in Edinburgh, Alexander MacMillan moved to Canada following his graduation from the University of Edinburgh, licensed by the United Presbyterian Presbytery of Edinburgh in June, 1887. He described what happened when he was a student:
While a student in the faculty of Arts in Edinburgh University, and in the Divinity Hall, Edinburgh, I felt a gradual and growing desire to make Canada the sphere of my...
ROBERTSON, Alison Margaret (née Malloch). b. Glasgow, 22 February 1940. She was the younger twin of the Revd. Jack and Nancy Malloch. In 1948 the family moved to the Gold Coast (now Ghana), when her father became a Church of Scotland missionary principal of the Teacher Training College at Akropong. Her mother ran a baby clinic once a week and Alison, at the age of 10, was made responsible for the small wounds part of the clinic, cleaning and dressing fresh and infected wounds sustained by the...
Alone with none but thee, my God. St Columba* (521-597), translated by Duncan MacGregor* (1854-1923).
This was first published in Saint Columba. A Record and a Tribute. To which are added the Altus and some other remains, with offices for the thirteen hundredth anniversary of his death (from ancient sources)(Edinburgh and Aberdeen, 1897), one of the first fruits of MacGregor's scholarly interest in the early Celtic church.It had four stanzas:
Alone with none but thee, my God, I journey on...
THOMSON, Andrew Mitchell. b. Sanquhar, Dumfriesshire, 11 July 1779; d. Edinburgh, 9 February 1831. His father was a minister who moved to Markinch, Fife, in 1785, and Andrew was educated at the parish school there and at the University of Edinburgh (1796-99). He was ordained at Sprouston, Roxburghshire (1802), serving there until 1808. He was then minister of the East Church, Perth (1808-10) and New Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh (1810-14), before becoming the first minister of St George's Church...
YOUNG, Andrew. b. Edinburgh, 23 April 1807; d. Edinburgh, 30 November 1889. The son of a schoolteacher, he was educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he was an outstanding student. In 1830, at the age of 23, he was appointed by the Town Council of Edinburgh to be headmaster of Niddry Street School, 'where he began with 80 pupils, and left with the total at 600' (JJ, p. 1299). After ten years in this post he became head of English at Madras College, St Andrews (1840-53). He retired to...
COUSIN, Anne Ross (née Cundell). b. Hull, Yorkshire, 27 April 1824; d. Edinburgh, 6 December 1906. The daughter of a Scottish army surgeon, she moved to Leith, near Edinburgh, as a small child. In 1847 she married William Cousin, who became the minister of the Free Church of Scotland at Irvine, Ayrshire, and later Free Church minister of Melrose, Roxburghshire. When at Irvine, she wrote her best known hymn, 'The sands of time are sinking'*. She published a collection of poems, Immanuel's Land...
CHARTERIS, Archibald Hamilton. b. Wamphray, Dumfiesshire, Scotland, 13 December 1835; d. Edinburgh, 24 April 1908. He was educated at Wamphray, and at the University of Edinburgh (MA, 1852). He became minister of New Abbey, south of Dumfries, and of the Park Church, Glasgow, built in 1858, and now sadly demolished. In those years he wrote The Life of the Rev. James Robertson, formerly Professor of Divinity and Ecclesiastical History at Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1863). He gave speeches and preached...
BROOKS, Arnold. b. Edgbaston, Birmingham, 25 December 1870; d. Edinburgh, 2 July 1933. Brooks was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (BA 1893, MA 1897). After serving a curacy at Bermondsey, London (1897-99), he moved to Scotland and to the Scottish Episcopal Church, becoming a 'licensed curate' of St Peter's, Lutton Place, Edinburgh (1899-1905), and then of St John's, Princes Street, Edinburgh (1905- 09). He was priest-in-charge of St...
Before I take the body of my Lord. John Lamberton Bell* (1949- ) and Graham Maule* (1958-2019).
From Love from Below (Wild Goose Songs 3) (1989), where the title is 'These I lay down'. It was written for a Thursday night Eucharist at Iona Abbey, in which the participants are seated round tables rather than facing the altar. It is a hymn of confession, although John Bell is on record as saying that he sometimes feels that 'we overdose ourselves in confession' at Holy Communion (Companion to...
Behold! the mountain of the Lord. Michael Bruce* (?) (1746-1767).
This is paraphrase 18, of Isaiah 2: 2-6, in the Scottish Psalter (1929). An earlier version was included in the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases (1745) beginning 'In latter days the mount of God,/ His sacred House, shall rise' (annotated under this heading in JJ, pp. 564-5). The present version was published by John Logan* in Poems. By the Rev. Mr. Logan, One of the Ministers of Leith (1781), and printed in the same year in...
Believing fathers oft have told. Archibald Hamilton Charteris* (1835- 1908).
This was written in 1889 on a steamer on Lake Como, Italy, where Charteris was presumably on holiday from his duties as a Professor of Biblical Criticism at the University of Edinburgh. It was written for the Young Man's Guild, of which Charteris was a founder, and published in the August number of The Guild Magazine in the same year. It was entitled 'Guild Hymn'. It was a long hymn of five 8-line stanzas, each of...
Carmina Gadelica (1900, and after).
The full title of this remarkable collection is Carmina Gadelica, Hymns and Incantations, with Illustrative Notes on Words, Rites,and Customs, Dying and Obsolete: orally collected in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and Translated into English. Volumes I and II were the work of Alexander Carmichael* (Gaelic name Alastair MacGillemhicheil) (1832-1912). Carmichael was an exciseman who collected Gaelic hymns, prayers, charms, and songs from the Highlands...
HUTCHESON, Charles. b. Glasgow, 1792; d. Glasgow, 20 January 1860. He lived all his life in Glasgow and worked in business there. He was a member of St George's Parish church (now St George's Tron Church). He was an amateur composer, and had a fine singing voice. He published Christian Vespers (1832), containing hymn tunes. He is known for the tune STRACATHRO, composed probably ca. 1849, and published in a collection entitled Mitchison's Improved and Enlarged Edition of Robertson's Selection of...
ROBERTSON, Charles. b. Springburn, Glasgow, 22 October 1940. He was educated at The Orphan Homes of Scotland Primary School (Quarrier's), Bridge of Weir; Camphill Senior Secondary School, Paisley; and New College, University of Edinburgh (MA). After studying divinity at New College, he was licensed to preach on 22 April 1964, and ordained and inducted to Kiltearn Parish Church, near Dingwall, Ross-shire, on 21 October 1965. He married Alison Robertson* in 1965. In June 1978 he was translated...
Christ has risen while earth slumbers. John Bell (b. 1949) and Graham Maule* (1958-2019).
'Christ has risen' first appeared in the collection Enemy of Apathy: Songs of the Passion and the Resurrection, and the Coming of the Holy Spirit (1988), the second of three early volumes of songs developed with over a dozen dialogue partners in the Wild Goose Worship Group (WGWG). The collaborative creative process with the WGWG was evident in the production of the early volumes: they sought to prepare a...
Christ is coming! Let creation. John Ross Macduff* (1818-1895).
Based on Revelation 22: 20, this Advent hymn is from Macduff's Altar Stones (1853), published when he was minister of St Madoes, Perthshire (Barkley, 1979, p. 141). It became Macduff's best known hymn. It had four stanzas:
Christ is coming! Let creation From her groans and travail cease; Let the glorious proclamation Hope restore and faith increase: Christ is coming! Come, Thou blessèd Prince of Peace.
Earth can now but...
Christ is our light! The bright and morning star. Leith Fisher* (1941-2009).
This hymn was written for the first Sunday after the Epiphany, which also marks the Baptism of Christ. It was written while Fisher was minister of the Old Parish Church of Falkirk (1979-90). On being invited back to Falkirk from his new parish of Wellington in Glasgow (1990-2006) to conduct a wedding, the author added a third stanza, based on the wedding at Cana (John 2: 1-11). The first stanza refers to 'the bright...
Christ is the world's Redeemer. St Columba* (521-597), translated by Duncan MacGregor* (1854-1923).
This is a translation of the second part of a Latin hymn, found in two manuscripts held in Dublin, in the library of Trinity College, and in the Franciscan College.This second part begins 'Christe Redemptor gentium'. Both sections were traditionally attributed to St Columba, but a note in the Trinity College MS casts doubt on his authorship of the first part, beginning 'In Te, Christe,...
Christ of all my hopes the ground. Ralph Wardlaw* (1779-1853).
First published in the supplement of 1817 to A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship: Intended primarily for the Church in Albion Street Chapel (Glasgow, 1803). It was in two parts: the first was entitled 'Christ All, and in all'. Seven stanzas, from parts 1 and 2 were printed in the Church Hymnary (1898), but thereafter it disappeared from Scottish books. SofP has a text of three 8-line stanzas, and SofPE shortens this to two. It...
Christ's is the world in which we move. John Lamberton Bell* (1949- ) and Graham Maule* (1958-2019).
From Love from Below (Wild Goose Songs 3) (1989) and reprinted in When Grief Is Raw (1997), this is a fervent plea for Christians to feel compassion for others. The hymn, with its title 'A Touching Place', has four stanzas with a refrain, and 'Feel for' are the opening words of stanzas 2-4. It names those for whom we should care, including the people whom we most avoid (stanza 2 line 2), those...
COLUMBA, St. ('Colm Cille'). b. County Donegal, Ireland, 521; d. Iona, Scotland, 597. Born in the north-west of Ireland, he was trained and educated in Ireland, emigrating to Iona in 563 where he founded a monastery and remained for the rest of his life. The name 'Colm Cille' means 'Dove of the Church', which is latinised as 'Columba'.
St Adomnán (d. 704), ninth abbot of Iona and Columba's biographer, stated that Columba had written a book of hymns for the week (Hymnorum liber septimaniorum)...
Come let us to the Lord our God. John Morison* (1750-1798), perhaps with John Logan* (1747/8-1788).
This paraphrase of Hosea 6: 1-4 was printed in the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases (1781). It has continued in use in the Church of Scotland from that time on, and is found in successive psalters and hymnbooks, up to and including CH3 and CH4. It was used in a number of 19th-century books, but in the 20th century its spread was remarkable, and it is found in many places outwith...
Come, pure hearts, in sweetest measures. Latin, translated by Robert Campbell* (1814-1868).
First published in Campbell's Hymns and Anthems for Use in the Holy Services of the Church within the United Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane (Edinburgh, 1850), where it was entitled 'Commemoration of Evangelists'. It was a translation of three stanzas from two anonymous Sequences of the 12th century, 'Iucundare, plebs fidelis'*, and 'Plausu chorus laetabundo'* (altered by Clichtoveus*: see...
Common Ground
Initiated by the Panel on Worship of the Church of Scotland and published in 1998 by the Saint Andrew Press, this ecumenical hymn book was compiled by representatives of seven Scottish churches and groups: Roman Catholic, Scottish Episcopal, Methodist, United Reformed, Scottish Congregational, Salvation Army, and Church of Scotland. The title page describes it as 'a song book for all the churches', and it was the first such collection since the Scottish Reformation. The Convener...
Courage, brother! do not stumble. Norman Macleod* (1812-1872).
Written for a Christian rally of working men, this was first published in 1857 in The Edinburgh Christian Instructor (Macleod was at one time its editor). With its strong ethical message ('Trust in God, and do the right') it was a very popular hymn in the 19th century, and in the first part of the 20th.
It had four 8-line stanzas in the Church Hymnary (1898), set to a tune, COURAGE, BROTHER, by Arthur Sullivan*:
Courage, brother! do...
Dance and sing. John Lamberton Bell* (1949- ) and Graham Maule* (1958-2019).
This text was first published in Heaven Shall Not Wait (Wild Goose Songs 1) (1987), paired with the Scottish traditional melody PULLING BRACKEN. The authors' advice is that it should be sung (and danced?) unaccompanied, but a recorder or violin might provide extra confidence. The theme is God's creation; the verses follow the pattern of the first chapter of Genesis while the refrain urges the whole earth to 'dance and...
RITCHIE, David Lakie. b. Kingsmuir, Angus, Scotland, 15 September 1864; d. Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 14 December 1951. He was educated at Forfar Academy and at the University of Edinburgh. He was ordained to ministry in the Congregational Church in Scotland, with a pastorate at Dunfermline (1890-96) and then in England at St James's Congregational Church, Newcastle upon Tyne (1896-1903). He was Principal of Nottingham Theological Institute from 1903 to 1919; and, after a year in Montreal as...
GALBRAITH, David Douglas. b. Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, 22 June 1940. Douglas Galbraith was educated at the High School of Dundee: he was organist in his local church while still at school. He went on to the University of St Andrews (MA 1961, BD 1964). As a student he had the opportunity of being seasonal musician at Iona Abbey, which was a formative experience in terms both of liturgy and music. He became a member of the Iona Community* in 1964. Following ordination as a minister in...
BUCHANAN, Dugald (Dughall Bochanan). b. Ardoch, Balquhidder, Perthshire, 1716; d. Ardoch, 2 July 1768. His diarydescribed his early manhood as a period of recklessness and ungodliness, profanity and vice (it is possible that he took the outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor (d. 1734), who lived at Balquhidder, as an example). He had some education in Stirling and Edinburgh, and worked for a time as an itinerant carpenter. During the 1740s he is believed to have spent some time at Glasgow at the Divinity...
Dunblane Praises (1965, 1967). The two collections under this title, published in 1965 and 1967 in manuscript form by the Scottish Churches' Music Consultation, were intended as a means of 'field testing' new hymns in congregations and as a stimulus for further new writing. Only two hundred copies of the first volume were printed, but the need to print another 1,200 copies indicated a demand for new material. As the Consultation came to the end of its work, selected items were republished, with...
MacGREGOR, Duncan. b. Fort Augustus, Inverness-shire, 18 September 1854; d. Inverallochy, near Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, 8 October 1923. He attended the University of Aberdeen in the years 1870-71 and 1873-74, but did not take a degree. He was a 'missioner' in parts of Scotland, including the Orkney Islands, before becoming minister of Inverallochy from 1881 until his death.
He became an authority on the early Scottish church, publishing Early Scottish Worship: Its General Principles and...
McNEIL (sometimes McNeill), Duncan. b. Glasgow, 15 February 1877; d. Glasgow, 28 January 1933. McNeil was a travelling Scottish evangelist, based in Glasgow. He continued to live there, apart from a visit to the USA in 1927-30, where he was associated with Kimball Avenue United Evangelical Church, Chicago (1928-30).
McNeil published Duncan McNeil's Hymn Book (London and Glasgow: Pickering and Inglis, n.d., but dated 1923 in British Library Catalogue). It is said to include 'Song Testimonies'...
HAMILTON, Eliza H. b. Glasgow, 3 October 1807; d. Bridge of Allan, Stirling, 14 April 1868. Hamilton's Hymns for the Weary was published at some time before 1869. In that year the Third Edition was advertised in an Edinburgh newspaper, the Daily Review (British Newspaper Archive, 3, 10 and 17 February), together with several other publications by Eliza H. Hamilton, such as The Destroyer, a Temperance Tale, price 1s 6d, The Convent: or, Paths of Danger, price 2d, The Hurricane: a Touching Story,...
CLEPHANE, Elizabeth Cecilia Douglas. b. Edinburgh, 18 June 1830; d. Melrose, Roxburghshire, 19 February 1869. She was a daughter of Andrew Clephane, Sheriff Principal of Fife and Kinross. The family later moved to Melrose, in the Scottish Borders, where Clephane became renowned for her kindness and generosity to the poor: she is said to have sold her horses to provide relief for the poor. Between 1872 and 1874 eight of her hymns were published in The Family Treasury, a religious magazine, under...
REID, Eric James. b. Banff, 24 February 1936; d. near Aberdeen, 20 August 1970. He was educated at the University of Aberdeen. He studied in Germany as a postgraduate, where he became deeply interested in twelve-tone music. He was director of music at Turriff Academy, Aberdeenshire (1961-67); lecturer in music, Dundee College of Education (1967-69); exchange teacher, Trenton State College, New Jersey, USA (1969-70). After his return to Scotland he was tragically killed in a car accident near...
Gaelic Psalm singing
Gaelic-speaking congregations of the Presbyterian church confine their congregational praise to the singing of metrical Psalms. This dates from the Reformation in Scotland in 1560, when one of the requirements of reform was that ordinary people should not be deprived of participation in church worship, hitherto the prerogative of clergy and church choirs. For this purpose the Psalms of David, as part of Holy Scripture, were chosen as texts. The folk tunes of British and...
Gather us in, thou love that fillest all. George Matheson* (1842-1906).
Written in 1890, and first published in Matheson's Sacred Songs (1890). It is a most unusual hymn, characteristic of Matheson's unexpected turns of thought and fertile poetic imagination (although blind, he uses the rainbow image, as he does in 'O love that wilt not let me go'*). Percy Dearmer*, who included it in SofPE, described it as 'unlike any other missionary hymn, and full of originality' (Songs of Praise Discussed,...
BUCHANAN, George. b. Killearn, near Glasgow, February 1506; d. Edinburgh, 28 September 1582. He was educated at the University of Paris (1520-22), the University of St Andrews (BA 1525), and the Scots College in Paris (BA 1527, MA 1528). After a successful early career in Paris, he returned to Scotland in 1537, where he wrote Somnium, a satire on the Franciscans. At this time he was still a Catholic, but a critical one. Imprisoned in 1539 during a persecution of Lutheran sympathisers, he...
MacDONALD, George. b. Huntly, Aberdeenshire, 10 December 1824; d. Ashstead, Surrey, 18 September 1905. Educated at King's College, Aberdeen (MA 1845), MacDonald moved to London where he was briefly a student at Highbury Theological College (1848- ). Although he did not complete the course, he was ordained at Arundel Congregational Church in 1950. He resigned in 1853, and moved to Manchester, where he became a writer, publishing a dramatic poem, Within and Without (1855), Poems (1857), Hymns and...
MATHESON, George. b. Glasgow, 27 March 1842; d. North Berwick, 28 August 1906. The son of a Glasgow merchant, he was educated at Glasgow Academy and the University of Glasgow, where he won several prizes. He graduated in 1866 and was licensed by the Presbytery of Glasgow in the same year. After serving a probationary year at Trinity Church, Sandyford, he was ordained and inducted as minister of Innellan in 1868. In 1886 he moved to Edinburgh to be minister of St Bernard's Church. He died in...
RORISON, Gilbert. b. Glasgow, 7 February 1821; d. Bridge of Allan, 11 October 1869. He was educated at the University of Glasgow. He was a member of the United Presbyterian Church, but joined the Episcopal Church of Scotland. After theological training in Edinburgh he was ordained in 1843, and served as an Episcopal Church priest at Leith, Helensburgh and Peterhead.
He published sermons and other devotional works (On the Christian miracles, 1854; Depression of the clergy the danger to the...
God sends us the Spirit. Tom Colvin* (1925-2000).
Written in Ghana during Colvin's period of missionary service, 1959-1964, and set to the melody of a Gonja folk song originally in praise of the tribe and its past leaders. The text was written, according to the author, for 'churches, particularly new churches, where the Spirit is experienced as a powerful presence'. It is included in several standard collections, and captures both the intimacy and the transformative power of the Holy Spirit....
DEANS, Graham Douglas Sutherland. b. Aberdeen, 15 August 1953. He was educated at Mackie Academy, Stonehaven, and the University of Aberdeen (MA 1974, BD 1977). He was licensed by the Presbytery of Aberdeen, 1977; he has served as assistant minister, Corstorphine, Edinburgh (1977-78), minister of Denbeath with Methilhill, Fife (1978-87), of St Mary's Parish Church, Dumfries (1987-2002), of South Ronaldsay and Burray, Orkney (2002-08), and of Queen Street Church, Aberdeen (2008- ).
Deans holds...
MAULE, Graham Alexander. b. Glasgow, 24 September 1958; d. Glasgow, 29 December 2019. The eldest of four children born to Margaret and Tom Maule, he studied architecture at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, University of Glasgow, 1975-80 (B.Arch., 1978); he then studied sculpture at the Leith Art School and Edinburgh College of Art (MFA, 2002). He completed a doctoral degree in sculpture at the University of Edinburgh (PhD, 2013).
In a tribute to Graham Maule that was read during his...
Gude and Godlie Ballatis (ca. 1540). 'The Gude and Godlie Ballatis' is the title generally given to a collection of ballads and other songs, probably, from internal evidence, originating in Scotland in the 1540s. If this date is correct, it pre-dates the Scottish Psalter of 1564. However, the first extant edition, which lacks its title page, is normally dated 1567. There were further editions in 1578, 1600 and 1621, with a title page describing it as 'Ane Compendius Buik of Godly and Spirituall...
MacGILL, Hamilton Montgomerie. b. Catrine, Ayrshire, 10 March 1807; d. Belleville, Paris, 3 June 1880. Born into a Secession family, MacGill entered the University of Glasgow in 1827, studying at the Theological Hall of the United Secession Church, a denomination recently formed in 1820 from two elements of the Secession church. Licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Kilmarnock, he was ordained in 1836 as colleague-minister in Duke Street Church in Glasgow. Dissension led to the exit of part...
BONAR, Horatius. b. Edinburgh, 19 December 1808; d. Edinburgh, 31 July 1889. Educated at the Edinburgh High School and Edinburgh University, he served as a missionary assistant at St James' Church, Leith, and in 1837 was ordained and inducted as minister of the North Parish Church, Kelso. He left the Church of Scotland in the Disruption of 1843 and remained in Kelso as a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. In 1866 he was called to Thomas Chalmers Memorial Church in Edinburgh and in 1883 he...
How few receive with cordial faith. William Robertson, d. 1745*.
According to James Mearns* in JJ, p. 536, this paraphrase of Isaiah 53 ('Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?') was identified by the daughter of William Cameron* as having been written by William Robertson for the unpublished Translations and Paraphrases of 1745, and amended by John Logan* for the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases in Verse of 1781. Mearns noted that it was 'still in C.U....
How lovely is thy dwelling place. Scottish Psalter*, 1564 onwards.
This metrical psalm was the version of Psalm 84 in the first Scottish psalm book after the Reformation, entitled The forme and ministration of the sacraments &c. used in the English church at Geneva, approved and received by the Church of Scotland. Whereunto besydes that was in the former bokes, are also added sondrie other prayers, with the whole psalms of David in English meter (Edinburgh: Robert Lekprevik, 1564). Psalm...
BLAIR, Hugh. b. Edinburgh, 7 April 1718; d. Edinburgh, 27 September 1800. According to James Mearns* (JJ, pp. 144-5), he was educated at the University of Edinburgh from 1730 (when he was twelve years of age), graduating MA in 1739 (Mearns gives his death date as 27 December 1800). He was licensed to preach in October 1741, and became minister of Collessie, Fife, in 1742. He moved as second minister to the Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh, in 1743, and to Lady Yester's Kirk (see William Robertson, d....
I lay my sins on Jesus. Horatius Bonar* (1808-1889).
This was first published in Bonar's Songs for the Wilderness, First Series (Kelso, 1843) (not 'in the Wilderness' as in JJ, p. 556). It was entitled 'The Fulness of Jesus', and preceded by a quotation from Isaiah: 'He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed - Isaiah, liii. 5.' It had four 8-line stanzas.It was later printed in his...
I once was a stranger to grace and to God. Robert Murray McCheyne* (1813-1843).
This hymn is sometimes known as 'Jehovah Tsidkenu'. It is dated 18 November 1834, and was first published in the Scottish Christian Herald (March 1836) (JJ, p. 557). It was then published in Songs of Zion to cheer and guide Pilgrims on their way to the Heavenly Jerusalem (Edinburgh, 1841), and (with the following words added) 'By the late Rev. R.M. McCheyne' (Dundee, 1843); and then in Memoir and Remains of the Rev...
I sought him dressed in finest clothes. John Lamberton Bell* (1949- ).
This hymn is entitled 'Carol of the Epiphany'. Written in 1988, it first appeared in the collection Innkeepers and Light Sleepers: Seventeen New Songs for Christmas (Chicago: 1992). It may be seen as completing a trilogy of hymns that provide insightful socio-political commentary on the Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany cycle:
Carol of the Advent ('From a woman and a weary nation')
The Carol of the Nativity ('A pregnant...
I waited for the Lord my God. Scottish Psalter, 1650.
This metrical version of Psalm 40 has 17 stanzas in The Psalms of David in Metre of 1781 and The Scottish Psalter, 1929, but the text that is customarily used in worship is from stanzas 1-4:
I waited for the Lord my God, and patiently did bear; At length to me he did incline My voice and cry to hear.
He took me from a fearful pit, and from the miry clay, And on a rock he set my feet, establishing my way.
He put a new song in my...
BRADLEY, Ian Campbell. b. Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, 28 May 1950. Ian Bradley was educated at Tonbridge School and New College, Oxford (BA 1971, MA, DPhil, 1974), where he won the Arnold Historical Essay Prize in 1971 and was Harold Salvesen Junior Fellow from 1972 to 1975. After a period working at the BBC and on The Times, followed by a time as a schoolmaster, free-lance author and broadcaster, he entered the University of St Andrews, where he studied for the BD and for the Church of...
FRASER, Ian Masson. b. Forres, 15 Dec 1917; d. Alva, near Stirling, 10 April 2018. He was the son of a butcher whose family were required to become involved from an early age in the business. Educated at Forres Academy and the University of Edinburgh (MA, BD, PhD). He was one of the earliest members of the newly-founded Iona Community and, in tune with its emphasis on the importance of witnessing to the Gospel within the political and industrial life of society, became a 'pastor-labourer' in a...
PITT-Watson, Ian Robertson. b. Dalmuir, Glasgow, 15 October 1923; d. Westminster, London, 11 January 1995. He was the son of a Church of Scotland minister, James Pitt-Watson, who became Moderator of the Church of Scotland. Ian was educated at Dollar Academy and Edinburgh University, before training for the ministry at New College, Edinburgh. After ordination as assistant minister at St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh (1950-52) he was appointed chaplain to the University of Aberdeen (1952-58),...
Immortal, invisible, God only wise. Walter Chalmers Smith* (1824-1908).
First published in Smith's Hymns of Christ and the Christian Life (1867), in the third section, 'Hymns of the Holy Trinity'. It had six stanzas. This text differs considerably from the one found in most modern hymnbooks, apart from the resounding first stanza.
The hymn was published in a revised form in William Garrett Horder*'s Congregational Hymns (1884) and in his Worship-Song (1905), and thereafter in EH, after which...
Inspired by love and anger. John Lamberton Bell* (1949- ) and Graham Maule* (1958-2019).
This song, 'Inspired by love and anger, disturbed by endless pain', was the title piece to Love & Anger: songs of lively faith and social justice (Wild Goose Publications, 1997). It was reprinted from Heaven Shall Not Wait (Wild Goose Songs 1) (1987), with the first line as 'Inspired by love and anger, disturbed by need and pain'. With the first line as '…endless pain…' this was reprinted in a 1997...
The Iona Community was founded in Scotland in 1938 by the Revd George MacLeod, later Lord MacLeod of Fiunary. It rebuilt the ancient monastic buildings on the island of Iona, from which St Columba* sent out missionaries such as St Aidan to convert Scotland and the north of England in the 6th century. With the rebuilding of the abbey of Iona, the Community has sought also the 'rebuilding of the common life', bringing together (in the words of its website) 'work and worship, prayer and politics,...
QUINN, James. b. Glasgow, 21 April 1919; d. Edinburgh, 8 April 2010. He was educated at St Aloysius' College, Glasgow, and read Honours in Classics at the University of Glasgow (MA 1939). He entered the Novitiate of the Jesuit Order in 1939, studying philosophy at Heythrop College (1941-44), followed by a period as a Greek and Latin teacher at Preston Catholic College (1944-48). He returned to Heythrop College to study theology (1948-52), being ordained in 1950. He served his Tertianship at St...
WEDDERBURN, James. b. Dundee, Scotland, ca. 1495; d. Dieppe or Rouen, France, 1553. James was the eldest of (probably) four brothers, the son of a merchant of Dundee. The others were John*, Robert and Henry (there may have been others). James was a student at St Andrews University (matriculated 1514), but left without taking a degree. He became a merchant in northern France, but returned at some point before 1539 to Dundee. He wrote two plays, The Beheading of Johne the Baptist and The Historie...
Jesus calls us here to meet him. John Lamberton Bell* (1949- ) and Graham Maule* (1958-2019).
From Love from Below (Wild Goose Songs 3) (1989), where the title is 'Jesus calls us'. Its opening line suggests a general call to worship in the manner of William Cowper*'s 'Jesus, where'er thy people meet'*, and the first three stanzas can be used for this purpose. The fourth stanza, beginning 'Jesus calls us to his table', makes its purpose clear. It is a hymn in which the previous three stanzas can...
BELL, John Lamberton. b. Kilmarnock, 20 November 1949. He was educated at the University of Glasgow 1968-71 (MA), 1972-74 and 1977-78 (BD). During the intervening periods he served as President of the Students Representative Council (1974-75) and as Associate Pastor for the English Reformed Church in the Netherlands (1975-77). While a student he was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow (1977-80).
His subsequent career was as follows: Youth Advisor, Presbytery of Glasgow (1978-83); Youth...
LOGAN, John. b. Soutra, Midlothian, 1747 or 1748; d. London, 28 December 1788. He was educated at schools at Soutra and Musselburgh, and at the University of Edinburgh (1762-65). His family had been members of the Associate Burgher Secession Church founded by Ebenezer Erskine, but Logan joined the Church of Scotland and was ordained as a minister at Leith in 1773. In 1775, perhaps through the influence of William Cameron*, he was appointed to the Committee of the General Assembly charged with...
MORISON, John. b. Cairnie, Aberdeenshire, 1750 (baptized 12 June); d. Canisbay, Caithness, 12 June 1798. He was a student at King's College, Aberdeen, after which he became a private tutor, first at Dunnet, Caithness, then at Halkirk (1768-ca. 1771). For a short time in 1773 he was a teacher at Thurso, before moving to Edinburgh. He contributed poetical pieces to Ruddiman's Edinburgh Weekly Magazine under the pseudonym 'Musaeus', and met Dr Macfarlane, minister of Canongate Kirk, who was a...
POLLOCK, John. b. Glasgow, Scotland, 27 October 1852; d. Belfast, Northern Ireland, 4 January 1935. The son of Janet, née Riddell, and Alexander Pollock, a grocer and tea merchant, John was baptized into the Free Church of Scotland, where his father was an Elder of the Kirk. His lively grasp of ideas and propensity for instructing others were in evidence at an early stage: he became a Sunday School teacher at the age of twelve.
At first attracted to a career in business, he entered the Arts...
WEDDERBURN, John. b. Dundee, Scotland, ca. 1505; d. England, place unknown, 1556. John Wedderburn was the second of four sons of a Dundee merchant, younger brother of James* and older brother of Robert, later vicar of Dundee from 1546 to ca 1555-60, and Henry. John was educated at St Andrews University (BA 1526, MA 1528), becoming a priest of St Matthew's Chapel, Dundee. His reforming views caused him to be indicted for heresy, and he fled to Germany, probably in 1539. He took refuge in...
GALLOWAY, Kathryn Johnston (née Orr). b. Dumfries, Scotland, 6 August 1952. She was educated at Boroughmuir Secondary School, Edinburgh (1964-70) and Glasgow University (BD 1974, Diploma in Pastoral Studies, 1976). She was licensed as a minister of the Church of Scotland, Edinburgh Presbytery (1976) and ordained in 1977 while Assistant Minister, Muirhouse Parish Church, Edinburgh (1976-9).
She has been a member of the Iona Community since 1976, was co-warden of Iona Abbey from 1983-89, and the...
MACBEAN, Lachlan. b. Kiltarlity, Inverness, 6 November 1853; d. Kirkcaldy, 24 January 1931. He was a Gaelic scholar and journalist. He edited the Fifeshire Advertiser, but his principal interest was in Gaelic language and literature. He published several instruction books, including Elementary Lessons in Gaelic (1889) and a Guide to Gaelic Conversation and Pronunciation (1895).
He is also remembered for his interest in Gaelic hymnody: he published The Sacred Songs of the Gael (1886) and Songs...
Lead, Holy Shepherd, lead us. Hamilton Montgomerie MacGill* (1807-1880).
This translation was included in the hymnbook of the United Presbyterian Church, The Presbyterian Hymnal (1877). The Church had been formed in 1847 through a union between the United Secession Church and the Synod of Relief (see 'Synod of Relief hymns'*). MacGill was one of the compilers of the 1877 hymnbook.
It was a translation of a hymn by Clement of Alexandria* (Titus Flavius Clemens, ca. 150- ca. 215), entitled 'Hymn...
FISHER, (Malcolm) Leith. b. Greenock, Renfrewshire 7 April 1941, d. Glasgow, 13 March 2009. Educated at Greenock Academy, he studied Arts and Divinity at the University of Glasgow 1959-65 (MA, BD), and received a Diploma in Pastoral Studies from Birmingham University (1965-66). He was licensed by the Presbytery of Greenock, May 1965. On 18 January 1967 he was ordained by the Presbytery of Glasgow while assistant minister (1966-68) at Govan Old Parish Church, the church from which in 1938 George...
Let Christian faith and hope dispel. John Logan* (1748-1788).
This was paraphrase 48 in Translations and Paraphrases (1781), part of the material for worship, together with the Scottish Psalter*, that dominated services in the Church of Scotland until recent times. The full title was Translations and Paraphrases, in verse, of several passages of Sacred Scripture. Collected and Prepared by a Committee of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in order to be sung in...
Let not your hearts with anxious thoughts. William Robertson, d. 1745*.
This is one of two paraphrases of chapter 14 of St John's Gospel. The first begins as above, and paraphrases verses 1-7; its companion-piece, 'You now must hear my voice no more', paraphrases verses 25-28. According to James Mearns* in JJ (p. 672), Robertson wrote them both for the draft of the never-published Translations and Paraphrases of 1745; they were identified as the work of Robertson by the daughter of William...
Lord of might, and Lord of glory. John Stuart Blackie* (1809-1895).
In Blackie's Songs of Religion and Life (Edinburgh and New York, 1876) this hymn was entitled 'Prayer for Direction':
Lord of might, and Lord of glory, On my knees I bow before Thee, With my whole heart I adore Thee, Great Lord! Listen to my cry, O Lord!
Passions proud and fierce have ruled me, Fancies light and vain have fooled me, But Thy training stern hath schooled me; Now, Lord, Take me for Thy child, O...
Lord of the brave, who call'st Thine own. John Huntley Skrine* (1848-1923).
Written in 1893 for a service of Confirmation during the time that Skrine was Warden (Headmaster) of Trinity College, Glenalmond, a 'public' or independent school (i.e. private school) with a strong Anglican tradition. It was later published in Skrine's Thirty Hymns for Public School Singing (1899). It was included in the Public School Hymn Book (PSHB, 1903), and remained in later editions (1919, 1949), until it was...
MACDONALD, Mary (née MacDougall). b. Ardtun, Isle of Mull, 1789; d. Ardtun, 21 May 1872. She was the daughter of a farmer; she married a crofter, Neil Macdonald. A devout Baptist, she wrote hymns and poems in Gaelic which she sang at her spinning wheel. The best known is probably 'Leanabh an aigh', verses of which were roughly translated as 'Child in the manger'* by Lachlan Macbean* for his Songs and Hymns of the Scottish Highlands (1888) and set to the Highland melody called in hymnbooks...
BRUCE, Michael. b. Kinnesswood, Kinross-shire, 27 March 1746; d. Kinnesswood, 5 July 1767. The son of a weaver, he was educated at the local schools: he entered Edinburgh University, intending to become a minister, but died while still an undergraduate. During vacations from the university, he taught at schools at Gairney Bridge and Tillicoultry in order to pay for his studies, and joined a 'singing class' at Kinnesswood in which the members sang hymns composed by him, written down in a...
PATRICK, Millar. b. Ladybank, Fife, 28 June 1868; d. Colinton, Edinburgh, 2 August 1951. The son of a railway fireman, he was educated at Dundee High School and the University of St Andrews (MA 1890). His parents were members of the United Secession Church (part of the United Presbyterian Church: see 'Synod of Relief hymns*) and Patrick went from St Andrews to Edinburgh United Presbyterian College to train for the ministry (1890-93). When the USC merged with the Free Church of Scotland to...
Missionary College Hymns (Scotland, 1914)
This compilation for the Free Church Women's Missionary Training Institute in Edinburgh was remarkable in including hymns from traditions other than the Christian: Vedic, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Syrian, African, Islamic – one of the latter being the Muezzin's call to prayer. They were set to tunes appropriate to their provenance, many Indian, but also melodies from Japan, Syria, Africa, China, Persia and Egypt, with instructions regarding...
DOUGALL, Neil. b. Greenock, near Glasgow, 9 December 1776; d. Greenock, 1 October 1862. He was the son of a joiner. His father was captured by the press gang and died on service abroad. When Neil left school at Greenock, he became a sailor in the merchant marine. In 1794 he lost part of his eyesight and the use of one arm in a gunnery accident while celebrating the victory over the French by Admiral Lord Howe on 'the glorious first of June'. Leaving the sea, he became a teacher of singing, and...
New College, Edinburgh, Hymnology Collection
New College was founded to serve the Free Church of Scotland at the Disruption of 1843, when ministers, led by David Welsh and Thomas Chalmers but including such figures as Horatius Bonar*, left the Church of Scotland on the grounds that the church was becoming too closely identified with the state, and subject to the right of patronage (see 'Synod of Relief hymns'*). The buildings of New College, prominent on the Mound on the Edinburgh skyline, were...
MacNICOL, Nicol. b. Catacol, Lochranza, Isle of Arran, 26 February 1870; d. Edinburgh, 13 February 1952. His father was minister of the United Free Church at Lochranza, later moving to Dunoon. Nicol MacNicol was educated at Glasgow High School and the University of Glasgow. He then studied at the United Free Church Theological College in Glasgow, before being ordained as a missionary to India in 1895. He spent six years at Wilson College, Bombay, before moving to the United Free Church Mission...
Night has fallen. Malawian, translated by Tom Colvin* (1925-2000).
The original was written by a Scottish missionary, probably Clement Scott, about 1885, to a melody collected by him from boatmen on the Zambezi river, and which had become established as a Malawi evening hymn. Colvin made the translation while himself serving in Malawi. The melody is believed to be the remnant of a song about the Virgin Mary introduced by Jesuits some two or three centuries earlier. In performance, the hymn is...
Not what these hands have done. Horatius Bonar* (1808-1889).
From Bonar's Hymns of Faith and Hope, Second Series (1861), where it had twelve stanzas. It was entitled 'Salvation through Christ alone' in 1861 but not in the edition of 1871, where its first line was used as a title:
Not what these hands have done Can save this guilty soul;Not what this toiling flesh has borne Can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do Can give me peace with God;Not all my prayers, and sighs, and tears, ...
Now Israel. William Whittingham* (ca. 1525/1530- 1579).
This is one of the two metrical versions of Psalm 124 of 1551: the other begins 'Had not the Lord been on our side'. According to Millar Patrick*, the metrical version of 'Now Israel' in French and the tune are by Théodore de Bèze*, in Pseaumes octante trois de David, mise en rime francoise. A savoir quarante neuf par Clement Marot. et trente quatre par Theodore de Besze (Geneva, 1551). The first stanza of this, the better known version...
O God, Thou art the Father. Attributed to St Columba* (521-597), translated by Duncan MacGregor* (1854-1923).
This is a translation of the hymn beginning 'In Te, Christe, credentium miserearis omnium'. Both sections were traditionally attributed to St Columba, but a note in the Trinity College MS casts doubt on his authorship of the first part. For details of the MS, the translation, its original, and its first publication, see the entry on 'Christ is the world's Redeemer'*. This translates...
O King enthroned on high. Greek, 8th century, translated by John Brownlie* (1857-1925).
The Greek hymn, 'Basileu ouranie, Parakleite', is from the Pentecostarion, the office book of the Greek church, where it was used on the eve of Pentecost. It is an 8-line hymn (printed in Frost, 1962, p. 374), from which Brownlie made a four-stanza hymn for Pentecost, published in his Hymns of the Greek Church (1900). It was included in EH with a tune, TEMPLE, by Walford Davies*, and later in CP with a tune,...
O send thy light forth and thy truth. Scottish Psalter*.
These well known stanzas paraphrase verses 3-5 of Psalm 43. In the Scottish Psalter of 1650, The Psalmes of David in Meeter, the text was as follows:
O send thy light forth, and thy truth: let them be guides to me, And bring me to thine holy Hill, ev'n where thy dwellings be.
Then will I to Gods altar go, to God my chiefest joy: Yea, God, my God, thy Name to praise my harp I will employ.
Why art thou then cast down, my soul? what...
O Trinity, O blessed Light. William Drummond of Hawthornden* (1585-1649).
This translation first appeared in A Primer or Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, published by the Catholic John Heigham (Saint-Omer, 1619) where it was one of a series of 19 hymns described as 'a new translation done by one most skilful in English poetry' (Barkley, 1979, p. 90). They were linked to Drummond's name in The Works of William Drummond, of Hawthornden. Consisting of Those which were formerly Printed, and Those...
One who is all unfit to count. Narayan Vaman Tilak* (1861-1919), translated by Nicol MacNicol* (1870-1952).
Written in Marathi, and translated by MacNicol, who published it in a periodical, The Indian Interpreter, in 1919. It was subsequently published in J.C. Winslow, Narayan Vaman Tilak, the Christian Poet of Maharashtra (Calcutta, 1923). It was included in A Missionary Hymn Book (1922) and then in RCH, in both books to the tune WIGTOWN (or WIGTON) from the Scottish Psalter of 1635. It has...
Praise God for this holy ground. John Bell* (1949– ).
This five-stanza hymn with refrain is a litany of praise to God. Four of the five stanzas employ anaphora, repeating 'Praise God' at the beginning of each. A jubilant refrain, 'Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! God's goodness is eternal', follows. First published in One Is the Body: Songs of Unity and Diversity (Glasgow/Chicago, 2002), the hymn appears in three other collections: the Canadian More Voices (2007), and in Worship and Song...
SMITH, Robert Archibald. b. Reading, Berkshire, 16 November 1780; d. Edinburgh, 3 January 1829. He was the son of a Scottish silk weaver, who had moved south to find work; Robert himself became a weaver, working in Reading and then in Paisley when the family moved back to Scotland in 1800. In 1803 he felt confident enough in his musical abilities to give up weaving and become a teacher of singing, and in 1807 he was appointed precentor of Paisley Abbey, where he made the choir famous. He...
BURNS, Robert. b. Alloway, Ayrshire, 25 January 1759; d. Dumfries, 21 July 1796. The son of a 'cotter', an agricultural labourer too poor to own his own house, Burns was given a good local education, read much as a child, and began to write poems while still at school. His family remained very poor, before and after his father's death in 1784. With his brother Gilbert he continued to farm, so unsuccessfully that he contemplated emigration to Jamaica. Before leaving, however, he sent his poems...
The Sandemanian Church was formed in Scotland, ca. 1730, by John Glas (1695-1773), who was dismissed from his charge as minister of Tealing, near Dundee, and who formed an independent church of his followers, opposed to the authority of anything except Holy Scripture, and believing that the death of Jesus Christ was sufficient to present even the worst sinner spotless before God (this antinomian doctrine was the subject of James Hogg's Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner,...
Says Jesus, 'Come and gather round'. Leith Fisher* (1941-2009).
Leith Fisher began writing hymns while minister of the Old Parish Church at Falkirk (1979-90). This continued when he was appointed as minister of Wellington Church, Glasgow (1990-2006). During the latter period, he was writing commentaries on the synoptic gospels, based on his preaching, and this work sometimes emerged in the form of hymns. This hymn derives from the incidents recorded in, for example, Matthew 18: 1–5 (Jesus...
Scottish Book of Praise (1876).
The Scottish Book of Praise (SBP) was published in 1876, principally for the fashionable Park Church in the West End of Glasgow. It was a decade at the beginning of which the Scottish Hymnal (SH) (Established Church of Scotland) had appeared, and the co-incidence is defended in the minister's Preface: 'When the Psalm-book and Hymnal of the Church of Scotland were promised, the Committee for a time suspended their labour, in the hope that these works would meet...
The hymns written and sung by Scottish Christians have been generally more rugged, strenuous and theologically nuanced than those of their co-religionists south of the Border, reflecting the harsher nature of their physical landscape, the greater seriousness and intensity of their faith, and the intellectual calibre of their ministry. Scottish hymn writers may not have had the smooth elegance or artistic accomplishment of their English counterparts — JJ ended its entry on them with the...
Scottish Psalter (1564).
Words
The metrical psalter was of immense importance in furthering and establishing the Reformation in Scotland. Even before the psalter of 1564, the Gude and Godlie Ballatis* of the Wedderburn brothers (see James Wedderburn* and John Wedderburn*) had brought the spirit of the continental reformers to Scotland in the 22 psalms translated into the rough vernacular. The Protestant exiles, who returned from Frankfurt, Geneva and elsewhere in the years immediately...
Synod of Relief hymns
The 'presbytery of relief' was founded in 1761 by three Scottish ministers, Thomas Gillespie of Dunfermline, Thomas Boston of Jedburgh, and Thomas Collier of Conisburgh, Fife, formerly of Ravenstonedale, Northumberland. Gillespie, who had been educated at the University of Edinburgh and under Philip Doddridge* at Northampton, had been deposed as minister of Carnock, near Dunfermline by the General Assembly in 1752. He had opposed the imposition of ministers by patronage,...
Take this moment, sign, and space. John Lamberton Bell* (1949– ) and Graham Maule* (1958–2019).
The hymn first appeared in Love from Below: The Seasons of Life, The Call to Care, and the Celebrating Community (Wild Goose Songs 3; Chicago: GIA Publications Inc., 1989). Notes with the song indicate that it may be 'used at times of commitment and re-commitment and also at the celebration of Holy Communion or marriage'.
The incipit of each stanza of 'Take this moment' is reminiscent of the...
Take, O take me as I am. John Bell* (1949– ).
This 'wee song' from the Scotland-based Iona Community* first appeared in Come All You People: Shorter Songs for Worship (Glasgow, 1994; Chicago, 1995) in the section entitled 'Leaving'. This was the first of several volumes produced by the Community devoted primarily to shorter songs. The song has been included in at least 25 collections on both sides of the Atlantic and translated into Korean and Spanish.
Written for the weekly service of...
That boy-child of Mary. Tom Colvin* (1925-2000).
Written in Malawi to a traditional dance tune. The theme of naming reflects the fact that in Africa generally the name given is carefully chosen to express the hopes the family has for the child or to record the events associated with his/her birth. Here, through the naming of Jesus and the circumstances of his birth, the meaning of the Incarnation is simply and tellingly expressed. The song is shared between a soloist and a wider group.
Douglas...
The King shall come when morning dawns. Greek, translated by John Brownlie* (1857-1925).
The author of the Greek text of this hymn is unknown (Stulken 1981, p. 133). The English text was from Brownlie's Hymns from the East, Being Centos and Suggestions from the Service Books of the Holy Eastern Church (Paisley, 1907). It is possible that it was by Brownlie himself, using a 'suggestion': The Companion to LSB (2019) describes it as 'an original text by Brownlie' (Volume 1, p. 46, note to Hymn...
The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want. Scottish Psalter (1650).
This paraphrase of Psalm 23 is the most famous of Scottish metrical psalms, although its fame outside Scotland is comparatively recent. The text is that of the Scottish Psalter* of 1650, sometimes printed with the slight emendation of 'no ill' for the original 'none ill' (verse 3 line 2).
Psalm 23 is a psalm that is greatly loved for its beauty and its power to comfort, and it is not surprising that this version is now frequently...
The race that long in darkness pin'd. John Morison* (1750-1798).
This paraphrase of Isaiah 9: 2-8 was written for the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases (1781). It has a complicated history, and has appeared in many versions.
Morison originally wrote a six-stanza text, reproduced in JJ, p. 1155, containing two blood-curdling stanzas (3 and 4) that do not accord well with the final vision of the coming of the Prince of Peace:
For thou our burden hast remov'd ,
and quell'd th'oppressor's...
The Saviour died, but rose again. John Logan*.
This hymn is part of Paraphrase 48 in the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases (1781), on Romans 8: 31-39. For the Biblical text, see the entry under 'Let Christian faith and hope dispel (Logan)'*. It is one of the paraphrases that was claimed by William Cameron* for Logan, a claim that, according to JJ, has 'never been seriously disputed' (p. 188).
The text beginning as above forms stanzas 5-9 of 'Let Christian faith and hope dispel'. The 1745...
Today I awake. John Lamberton Bell* (1949- ) and Graham Maule* (1958-2019).
From Love from Below (Wild Goose Songs 3) (1989). This begins 'Today I awake/and God is before me'. It is a morning hymn in Trinitarian form, affirming Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with a final stanza on the Holy Trinity. It has something in common with the Celtic hymnody found in Carmina Gadelica*: see the 'Morning Prayer' quoted in that entry:
Thanks be to Thee, Jesus Christ, Who brought'st me up from last night, To...
COLVIN, Thomas Stevenson ('Tom'). b. Glasgow, 16 April 1925; d. Edinburgh, 24 February 2000. He was educated at Allan Glen's School, Glasgow and at Glasgow Technical College where he trained as a mining engineer (1945-48). After National Service in Burma and Singapore with the Royal Engineers, he returned to Trinity College, University of Glasgow, to prepare for ministry in the Church of Scotland. He was ordained in 1954 in Blantyre, Nyasaland (now Malawi) as a missionary. This was followed by...
'Twas on that night when doomed to know. John Morison* (1750-1798).
This paraphrase of Matthew 26: 26-29 was no 35 in the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases (1781). It is attributed to Morison on the evidence of the daughter of William Cameron*, who thus marked her copy. According to JJ, p. 1180, it is based on a Latin hymn, 'Nocte quâ Christus rabidis Apellis', by Andreas Ellinger (1526-1582), translated by William Archibald, minister of Unst, Shetland (d. 1785).
It has remained as...
Where high the heavenly temple stands. Scottish Translations and Paraphrases (1781).
This is the second of two paraphrases of Hebrews 14-16, numbered 58 in the paraphrases. It is thought to have been one of those written by Michael Bruce* for his singing class at Kinnesswood. It appeared in Poems on Several Occasions, by Michael Bruce (1770), edited by John Logan*. It was then found in Poems. By the Rev. Mr. Logan. One of the Ministers of Leith (1781). In this book Logan seemed to be passing...
HAMILTON, William (H). b. Barnhill, Dundee, 24 March 1886; d. Insch, Aberdeenshire, 25 December 1958. He was educated at St Andrews University and the United Free Church College, Glasgow. After ordination, he held various pastorates, until he became General Secretary of the World Alliance of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches in 1927.
In addition to being a United Free Church minister, he was a writer and editor (the Great Heart Magazine, 1921-28, Holyrood Anthology of Modern Scots Poems,...
CAMERON, William. b. near Ballater, Aberdeenshire, 1751; d. Kirknewton, Midlothian, 17 November 1811. He was educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he was a student and friend of the poet James Beattie. It may have been through Beattie's influence that Cameron became a member of the Committee of the General Assembly charged with producing the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases, which appeared in 1781. In turn, it may have been Cameron who introduced the dubious figure of John Logan*...
DRUMMOND, William, of Hawthornden. b. Lasswade, near Edinburgh (now in Midlothian), 13 December 1585; d. Lasswade, 4 December 1649. He was the son of Sir John Drummond (1553-1610), Laird of Hawthornden. He was educated at the High School of Edinburgh, and Edinburgh College (now the University of Edinburgh), MA 1605, followed by a time in France studying law. On the death of his father he became the Laird of Hawthornden, and lived at Lasswade, devoting his time to local affairs and to writing....
ROBERTSON, William. b. date unknown, ca. 1688; d. 16 November 1745. He was the son of David Robertson of Brunton, Fife (James Mearns* in JJ, p. 968, the source of much of the information that follows). He was licensed to preach in 1711. He was assistant minister in the Presbyterian Church at London Wall, but returned to Scotland in 1714 as minister of Borthwick, Midlothian. In 1733 he became minister of Lady Yester's Kirk, Infirmary Street, Edinburgh, at that time one of the most prestigious...