Lord Christ, who on thy heart didst bear

Lord Christ, who on thy heart didst bear. Arnold Thomas* (1848-1924). The first line of this hymn was originally ‘Brother, who on Thy heart didst bear’, included in the Congregational Hymnary (1916) and CP. In 1916 it was headed ‘Touched with the feeling of our infirmities‘, from Hebrews 4: 15. A modernized version, ‘Brother, you on your heart did bear’, is in WOV. As early as 1951, however, BBCHB had changed the first line to ‘Lord Christ, who on thy heart didst bear’, omitting Thomas’s last stanza, and losing the idea of Christ as our brother. The whole point of the hymn is to emphasise the brotherhood of the incarnate Christ and the beautiful elements of the divine nature, which human...