Ho! ye that rest beneath the rock

Ho! ye that rest beneath the rock. Edmund Hamilton Sears* (1810-1876). This hymn was published in Hymns of the Spirit (Boston, 1864), an important Unitarian collection edited by Samuel Johnson* and Samuel Longfellow* (JJ, p. 1036), and this is sometimes taken as its first appearance. However, Hymnary,org has identified at least two earlier printings, in Children’s Praise: a book of prayers and hymns for the children of the church (Boston, 1858) and the Second Edition of A Book of Hymns and Tunes: for the Sunday School, the Congregation and Home (Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1860), edited by Johnson. It may well have appeared earlier. In Hymns of the Spirit it was in a section...