O Holy Lord, content to live [dwell —fill]. Bishop W. W. How. [A Child's Hymn.] Written in 1850, and 1st published in The Parish Choir in 1851. In 1854 it was repeated in Morrell & How's Psalms & Hymns, No. 65, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines. When included in Hymns Ancient & Modern, in 1861, considerable alterations were made in the text, and it began, "O Holy Lord, content to dwell.” This first line, but not the alterations in detail, was adopted in the enlarged edition of Morrell & How's Psalms & Hymns, 1864. For the S. P. C. K. Church Hymns, 1871, it was again rewritten, this time by Bishop How, as “O Holy Lord, content to fill." This is the author's authorised text, and is repeated in his Hymns, 1886. All these texts are in common use.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
William W. How (b. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, 1823; d. Leenane, County Mayo, Ireland, 1897) studied at Wadham College, Oxford, and Durham University and was ordained in the Church of England in 1847. He served various congregations and became Suffragan Bishop in east London in 1879 and Bishop of Wakefield in 1888. Called both the "poor man's bishop" and "the children's bishop," How was known for his work among the destitute in the London slums and among the factory workers in west Yorkshire. He wrote a number of theological works about controversies surrounding the Oxford Movement and attempted to reconcile biblical creation with the theory of evolution. He was joint editor of Psalms and Hymns (1854) and Church Hymns (1871). While rec… Go to person page >
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