O thou by long experience tried

O thou by long experience tried. Jeanne Marie Guyon* (1648-1717), translated by William Cowper* (1731-1800). Madame Guyon’s spiritual songs, entitled Poésies et Cantiques Spirituels (1722), were published after her death in 1717.  Cowper translated 37 of them into English in 1782. His attention was drawn to them by his friend William Bull, the evangelical rector of Newport Pagnell. Bull published them after Cowper’s death, as Poems Translated from the French of Madame de la Mothe Guion (1801). Most of the ten hymns listed by JJ as in use were from this translation. They were found mainly in American books, although this hymn was included by Edward Henry Bickersteth* in Hymns and...