Father of Love, our Guide and Friend

Father of love, our Guide and Friend. William Josiah Irons* (1812-1883). According to JJ, p. 370, this was written ‘for a large Confirmation at Brompton, in 1844’. It was published in Richard T. Lowe’s Hymns for the Christian Seasons, and other occasions (Gainsburgh [Gainsborough], 1854) and in the hymn section of the Appendix to the Brompton Metrical Psalter (1861). Irons later published it in Hymns for the Church (1873) and Psalms and Hymns for the Church (1875). It was then printed in Godfrey Thring*’s  A Church of England Hymn Book (1880, The Church of England Hymn Book, 1882) and the SPCK Church Hymns, in the revised edition of 1903, edited by Charles Harford Lloyd*. It became well...