When God of old came down from heaven

When God of old came down from heaven. John Keble* (1792-1866). This is a selection (verses 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 11) from an 11-verse poem entitled ‘Whitsunday’ in The Christian Year (1827). Many different selections have been made. The poem was preceded by a quotation from Acts 2: 2-4: ‘And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.’ The selection, made for the First Edition of A&M, has become the standard text: it omits some of the more dramatic elements of the earlier...