O Lord our God, arise

O Lord our God, arise. Ralph Wardlaw* (?) (1779-1853). First published in the Congregationalist book, A Collection of Hymns for the use of the Tabernacles in Scotland (1800), in two 4-line stanzas. According to JJ it is ‘usually attributed to Dr. Wardlaw, but on insufficient evidence’ (p. 1583). If it is by him, it would certainly have been written very early in his career, perhaps while he was still a student. It was enlarged to make a hymn of four 4-line stanzas in Wardlaw’s 1803 Selection of Hymns for Public Worship for his Albion Street Chapel, but whether either version is by Wardlaw is not clear. It is still found in many books, from the Church Hymnary (1898) through RCH and CH3 in...