With thankful hearts our songs we raise

Author: Edward Henry Bickersteth

Bickersteth, Edward Henry, D.D., son of Edward Bickersteth, Sr. born at Islington, Jan. 1825, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A. with honours, 1847; M.A., 1850). On taking Holy Orders in 1848, he became curate of Banningham, Norfolk, and then of Christ Church, Tunbridge Wells. His preferment to the Rectory of Hinton-Martell, in 1852, was followed by that of the Vicarage of Christ Church, Hampstead, 1855. In 1885 he became Dean of Gloucester, and the same year Bishop of Exeter. Bishop Bickersteth's works, chiefly poetical, are:— (l) Poems, 1849; (2) Water from the Well-spring, 1852; (3) The Rock of Ages, 1858 ; (4) Commentary on the New Testament, 1864; (5) Yesterday, To-day, and For Ever, 1867; (6) The Spirit of Life, 1868;… Go to person page >

With thankful hearts our songs we raise. [Holy Baptism.] This hymn is No. 278, in the 4th edition, 1832, of J. Bickersteth's Psalms & Hymns, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines. In common with all the hymns in the collection, it is unsigned, and there is nothing to determine its authorship. It is sometimes attributed to "Bickersteth," but for this ascription we know of no authority whatever. It is in somewhat extensive use in America

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)