God of life, and light, and motion

Author: Frederick Oakeley

Frederic Oakeley graduated M.A. at Oxford, and took Orders in the Church of England. He became Prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral, preacher at Whitehall, and incumbent of Margaret Chapel, London. He was active in the "Oxford Movement," and in 1845, called attention to his views for the purpose of seeing if he could continue to hold an Oxford degree, with so great a change in his opinions. The question was tried, and he was perpetually suspended unless he retracted. He then resigned his positions in the Church of England, and entered the Church of Rome, in which he became a Priest, and Canon of the diocese of Westminster. His publications are numerous, and some of them have considerable value. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchi… Go to person page >

God of life, and light, and motion . F. Oakeley. [Holy Trinity.] Published in his Lyra Liturgica, &c, 1865, p. 145, in 14 stanzas of 4 lines. In the Hymnary, 1872, No. 340, it appears as a hymn of 4 stanzas of 12 lines, and the same text is repeated in the Altar Hymnal , 1884, No. 47. This arrangement is attained by omitting stanzas iv.-vi., and adding one of 4 lines at the close. The text in Hall & Lasar's Evangelical Hymnal, N. Y., 1880, in 2 stanzas of 12 lines, is from the Hymnary. In one or two collections the latter part of the hymn is given, beginning with stanza x. as, “God the Father, Son and Spirit."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)