Hark, my soul! it is the Lord

Hark, my soul! it is the Lord. William Cowper* (1731-1800). First published in Thomas Maxfield’s New Appendix (1768) to his Collection of Psalms and Hymns Extracted from Various Authors (1766); then in the Gospel Magazine (August 1771), where it was mistakenly attributed to John Newton*; then in Richard Conyers*’s Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1774); and then in Book I of Olney Hymns (1779). In Olney Hymns it was entitled ‘Lovest thou me? Chap. xxi. 16’ [of St John’s Gospel]. It became widely known after its printing in the Second Edition of A&M (1875), set to the tune ST BEES by John Bacchus Dykes*, and it has continued to be popular to the present day: it appeared in most major...