Sweetly the holy hymn

Sweetly the holy hymn. Charles Haddon Spurgeon* (1834-1892). This was one of a small group of hymns written by Spurgeon for Our Own Hymn-Book (1866), the compilation that he prepared for the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London. It was included in MHB (1933) and is found in a few hymnbooks subsequently. The hymn is intended for use at an early morning prayer meeting, and the infrequency of services at this hour may be one reason why it has not been more widely popular. Each of the first four verses opens with a simple image of the world at daybreak, poised for the renewal of human activity. The third line of verse 1, ‘Before the world with smoke is dim’, reflects 19th-century conditions, when...