Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee. Henry van Dyke* (1852-1933). Written ca. 1908, when van Dyke was a visiting preacher at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, set in the beautiful landscape of the Berkshire Hills, which is said to have inspired the hymn. It is clearly influenced by the splendour of nature, as in verse 2 lines 3-4: Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea, Singing bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in Thee. Van Dyke wrote: ‘These verses are simple expressions of common Christian feelings and desires in this present time – hymns of today that may be sung together by people who know the thought of the age, and are not afraid that any...