Let the whole creation cry

Let the whole creation cry.  Stopford Brooke* (1832-1916). From Brooke’s Christian Hymns (1881), the book compiled for his congregation at Bedford Chapel (even though by that time he had left the Church of England). It was published by the Women’s Printing Society, a recently-founded enterprise to employ women, which became associated with the early years of the suffragette movement. It was also an example of Brooke’s liking for long hymns, for it had ten 4-line stanzas. It was based on Psalm 148, and Brooke’s version captures very well the excitement of  some verses of the Psalm, in which praise comes from ‘fire and hail, snow and vapour, stormy wind fulfilling his word; mountains and all...