Three kings were led by God's own hand

Author: Richard Frederick Littledale
Published in 1 hymnal

Author: Richard Frederick Littledale

Richard Frederick Littledale (b. Dublin, 1833; d. London, 1890) entered Trinity College, Dublin, as a foundation scholar, graduated with a bachelors degree in classics, a Masters of Divinity in 1858, then a Bachelors and Doctorate in Civil Law at Oxford in 1862. From 1856 to 1857 he was the curate of St. Matthew in Thorpe Hamlet, Norfolk, and from 1857 to 1861 was the curate of St. Mary the Virgin, in Soho, London. For the remainder of his life he suffered from chronic illness and spent most of his time writing. He authored many books and pamphlets on Anglican liturgy, theology, and the church’s engagement with society, and completed his good friend John Mason Neale’s work on the psalms after Neale died in 1866. Laura de Jong… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Three kings were led by God's own hand
Author:	Richard Frederick Littledale
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Drei König führt die göttlich Hand. [Epiphany.] Appeared in the Alte Catholische Geistliche Kirchengesäng, Cologne, 1621, in 9 stanzas of 6 lines, and thence, omitting stanza ii. in F. Hommel's Geistliche Volkslieder, 1871, No. 51; and in full, but altered, in Trier Gesang-Buch (R. C), 1846, p. 34. Nearly the same text, but beginning, "Es führt drei König Gottes Hand,” from the Catholische Kirchen Getsäng, Cologne, 1625, is included, omitting stanzas ii., ix. in Wackernagel, v. p. 1251, and in H. Bone's Cantate, 1846 (edition 1879, No. 82). Translated as:—
Three kings were led by God's own hand, a good translation from the Trier text, omitting stanzas ii., iv, vii., by Dr. R. F. Littledale, as No. 54 in the People's Hymnal, 1867, signed “A. L. P." [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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