We walk by faith, and not by sight

We walk by faith and not by sight. Henry Alford* (1810-1871). First published in Alford’s Psalms and Hymns, adapted to the Sundays and Holydays throughout the year (1844). It is an unspectacular but effective four-stanza hymn, beginning with a quotation from 2 Corinthians 5: 7, and based on the account of St Thomas’s meeting with the risen Christ in John 20: 24-29. It was included by Frederick Bridge* in The Westminster Abbey Hymn Book (1883), but after that it seems to have been neglected in Britain by hymnbook compilers until recent times (Celebration Hymnal for Everyone, 1994, Laudate, 1999). It had four stanzas, of which 2 is particularly close to the Biblical text: We walk by faith...

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