Shine thou upon us, Lord

Shine thou upon us, Lord. John Ellerton* (1826-1893). The version of this hymn that is now sung first appeared in the Supplement (1889) to the Second Edition of A&M (1875). It was entitled 'For a Teachers' Meeting'. In a letter of 24 April 1889 written to E. H. Bickersteth*, Bishop of Exeter, Ellerton explained that the hymn originally began with the lines: Break thou to us, O Lord, The Bread of Life to-day. Ellerton told Bickersteth: ‘I think it is an inappropriate use of our Lord’s metaphor, which is never applied to teaching, so I have altered it.’ He may have been thinking that the original lines with their Eucharistic theme would have been considered Tractarian and thus...