We saw thee not when thou didst come
We saw thee not when thou didst come. John Hampden Gurney* (1802-1862).
First published in Gurney’s Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship, selected for some of the Churches in Marylebone (‘The Marylebone Collection’, 1851).
This hymn has a complicated textual history (see JJ, pp.1242-3). Like ‘Yes, God is good — in earth and sky’*, it was suggested by an earlier text. In Songs of the Valley: A Collection of Sacred Poetry (Kirkby Lonsdale, 1834), there appeared a hymn by Anne Rigby, subsequently Mrs Anne Richter, beginning:
We have not seen Thy footsteps tread
This wild and sinful earth of ours,
Nor heard Thy voice restore the dead
Again to life’s reviving powers:
But we believe – for...
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MLA style (see MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 3rd Ed.)
. "We saw thee not when thou didst come."
The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press. Web. 13 Jul. 2025.<
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/w/we-saw-thee-not-when-thou-didst-come>.
Chicago style (see The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Ed.)
. "We saw thee not when thou didst come."
The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press, accessed July 13, 2025,
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/w/we-saw-thee-not-when-thou-didst-come.