Stand up and bless the Lord. J. Montgomery. [Praise and Thanksgiving.] Written for the Sheffield Red Hill Wesleyan Sunday School Anniversary, held on Mar. 15, 1824; and also used at the Whitsuntide gathering of the Sheffield Wesleyan Sunday School Union, on the Whit-Monday of that year. The opening lines of the original read:—
"Stand up and bless the Lord,
Ye children of His choice."
When Montgomery included it in his Christian Psalmist, 1825, No. 558, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, he altered this opening to:—
"Stand up and bless the Lord,
Ye people of His choice:"
and this was repeated in his Original Hymns, 1853, No. 86. In J. H. Thorn's Hymns, &c, 1858, it begins, “Arise, and bless the Lord: " and in the American Songs for the Sanctuary, N. Y., 1865, "0 Thou above all praise" (stanzas ii. altered). It is in extensive use in all English-speaking countries, and usually the 1825 text is followed.
-- 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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