O Lord of hosts, Whose glory fills. J. M. Neale. [Laying Foundation Stone of a Church.] Appeared in his Hymns for the Young (being the 2nd series of his Hymns for Children) in 1844, No. 27, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed, "Laying the First Stone of a Church." It is given in numerous hymnals, as Hymns Ancient & Modern, the People's Hymnal, Thring's Collection, &c. The alteration of stanza v., 11. 1-2, from:—
”Endue the hearts that guide with skill;
Preserve the hands that work from ill;
to—
The heads that guide endue with skill,
The hands that work preserve from ill,"
given in Hymns Ancient & Modern in 1861, has been adopted with almost common consent.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
John M. Neale's life is a study in contrasts: born into an evangelical home, he had sympathies toward Rome; in perpetual ill health, he was incredibly productive; of scholarly temperament, he devoted much time to improving social conditions in his area; often ignored or despised by his contemporaries, he is lauded today for his contributions to the church and hymnody. Neale's gifts came to expression early–he won the Seatonian prize for religious poetry eleven times while a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, England. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1842, but ill health and his strong support of the Oxford Movement kept him from ordinary parish ministry. So Neale spent the years between 1846 and 1866 as a warden of Sackvi… Go to person page >
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