I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew

I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew. Jean Ingelow* (1820-1897). Under the epigraph ‘He first loved us’ (1 John 4:19), this three-stanza poem was originally published anonymously in One Hundred Holy Songs, Carols and Sacred Ballads (Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1878) and then in the slightly abbreviated Holy Songs, Carols and Sacred Ballads (Roberts Brothers, Boston, Mass., 1880). The poem’s first appearance in a hymnbook was, it seems, in the American Congregationalist The Pilgrim Hymnal (1904). It found wide acceptance in America, and returned to Britain in BHB (1962): I sought the Lord, and afterward I knewHe moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me;It was not I that found, O Saviour...