All that's Good and Great and True

Author: Godfrey Thring

Godfrey Thring (b. Alford, Somersetshire, England, 1823; d. Shamley Green, Guilford, Surrey, England, 1903) was born in the parsonage of Alford, where his father was rector. Educated at Balliol College, Oxford, England, he was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1847. After serving in several other parishes, Thring re­turned to Alford and Hornblotten in 1858 to succeed his father as rector, a position he retained until his own retirement in 1893. He was also associated with Wells Cathedral (1867-1893). After 1861 Thring wrote many hymns and published several hymnals, including Hymns Congregational (1866), Hymns and Sacred Lyrics (1874), and the respect­ed A Church of England Hymn Book Adapted to the Daily Services of the Church… Go to person page >

All that's good, and great, and true. Godfrey Thring. [Praise and Thanksgiving.] Written in 1863, and first published in his Hymns Congregational and Others, 1866, No. 24, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled “Nature's Harmony." It was repeated in his Hymns and Lyrics, 1874, pp. 108-9, and again in his Church of England Hymn Book, 1882, where it is given most appropriately as a hymn for children.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)