O Spirit of the living God. J. Montgomery. [For Missions.] Written in 1823 "to be sung at the Public Meeting of the Auxiliary Missionary Society for the West Biding of Yorkshire, to be sung in Salem Chapel, Leeds, June 4, 1823." It was first printed on a fly-sheet for that meeting, and again in the Evangelical Magazine in the following August. After a careful and most successful revision it was published by Montgomery in his Christian Psalmist, 1825, No. 552, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed "The Spirit accompanying the Word of God; " and again in his Original Hymns, 1853, No. 257. It is usually given in an abridged form; but the text is seldom altered. As a hymn on behalf of Missions it has great merit, and is in extensive use in all English-speaking countries. The original text is given in the Churchman's Shilling Magazine, 1877.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >
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