Long ago the lilies faded

Long ago the lilies faded. William George Tarrant* (1853-1928). Tarrant was one of the editors of the Essex Hall Hymnal (1890), a book for the use of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, and named after Essex Hall in London, the headquarters of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association. None of his hymns was found in that book, but in the Revised Edition of 1902 this hymn, with its beautiful first line, was included. It was entitled ‘The Constant Presence’. It was loosely based on the verse from Matthew 6: 28-29 (Luke 12: 27): ‘Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not...