Happy are they, they that love God

Happy are they, they that love God. Charles Coffin* (1676-1749), translated by Robert Bridges* (1844-1930). From Bridges’s Yattendon Hymnal*, Part II (1897). It is a translation of a hymn by the French Latin writer Charles Coffin beginning O quam juvat Fratres, Deus unum quibus Christus caput vitale robur sufficit uno moreri spiritu. The hymn was published in the Parisian Breviary (1736) and in Coffin’s Hymni Sacri (1736). It had been translated by John Chandler* in his Hymns of the Primitive Church (1837) as ‘O Lord, how joyful ’tis to see’. The freedom which Bridges allowed himself in the translation is seen in stanza 3, line 1, ‘Christ to their homes giveth his peace’, translating the...