Lord, teach a little child to pray

Lord, teach a little child to pray. John Ryland* (1753-1825).  This hymn is dated 1756 (JJ, p. 983).  A note by Ryland’s son in Daniel Sedgwick*’s Hymns and Verses on Sacred Subjects by the Late John Ryland (1862) indicates that it was written at the request of Ann Fuller, second wife of the Revd Andrew Fuller, Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society and a close friend. It was written for their daughter Sarah, who died in 1789, aged six. It had five stanzas:  Lord, teach a little child to pray,  Thy grace betimes impart And grant, thy Holy Spirit may  Renew my infant heart.  A helpless creature I was born,  And from the womb I stray’d; I must be wretched and forlorn,  Without thy...