Shepherd of tender youth

Shepherd of tender youth. Clement of Alexandria (Titus Flavius Clemens), ca. 150-ca. 220), translated by Henry Martyn Dexter* (1821-1890). This hymn, entitled ‘Hymn of the Saviour Christ’, is one of the earliest (if not the earliest) Christian hymns. It was appended to the end of Book III of Paidagogos (‘The Tutor’), a treatise by Clement, who taught philosophy and religion in the school at Alexandria. It was translated by Dexter during his time as a minister at Manchester, New Hampshire, and published in The Congregationalist (21 December 1849). According to Polack (1958, p. 450) it was written to be sung at a service in 1846 in which Dexter was preaching on the text from Deuteronomy 32:...