Thou whose unmeasured temple stands

Thou whose unmeasured temple stands. William Cullen Bryant* (1794-1878). Written in 1835 for the dedication of a church in Prince Street, New York City, afterwards destroyed by fire. The note in JJ, p. 189, states that it was altered to ‘O Thou, whose own vast temple stands’ in ‘Sewell’s [sic](Unitarian) Collection (revised ed., 1845)’. This was A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Social and Private Worship compiled by a committee of the West Parish in Boston (Boston, 1823, edited by Henry Devereux Sewall (1786-1845). It appears with its original first line in Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith (Boston, 1875), edited by Alfred P. Putnam. Sewall’s alteration loses the effective contrast...