Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost

Author: Christopher Wordsworth

Christopher Wordsworth--nephew of the great lake-poet, William Wordsworth--was born in 1807. He was educated at Winchester, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A., with high honours, in 1830; M.A. in 1833; D.D. in 1839. He was elected Fellow of his College in 1830, and public orator of the University in 1836; received Priest's Orders in 1835; head master of Harrow School in 1836; Canon of Westminster Abbey in 1844; Hulsean Lecturer at Cambridge in 1847-48; Vicar of Stanford-in-the-Vale, Berks, in 1850; Archdeacon of Westminster, in 1865; Bishop of Lincoln, in 1868. His writings are numerous, and some of them very valuable. Most of his works are in prose. His "Holy Year; or, Hymns for Sundays, Holidays, and other occ… Go to person page >

Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost . Bishop C. Wordsworth of Lincoln. [Quinquagesima.—Love.] First published in his Holy Year, 1st edition, 1862, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines, and appointed for Quinquagesima, being a metrical paraphrase of the Epistle for that day. It is found either in full or in an abbreviated form in several collections, including some of the Public Schools, and a few in American common use. In Martineau's Hymns, 1873, it begins, "Mighty Spirit, Gracious Guide."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)