Folliott Sandford Pierpoint was out walking near his native city of Bath, spring, and violets and primroses were in full bloom. As he rested and Somerset, England, and stopped to rest at the top of a hill. It was late surveyed the beauty of the scene and meditated, his thoughts were filled with the manifold gifts of God. Several years later he summarized these thoughts in a hymn written specially for the Communion service, and entitled “The Sacrifice of Praise.” It was first published in Orby by Shipley’s Lyra Eucharista, 1864, in eight stanzas. SDAH’s third stanza is not one of these.

Pierpoint was born in Bath, Somerset, England, on October 7, 1835. He was educated at Bath Grammar School, and gained his Bachelor of Arts at I He Cambridge in 1857. He taught classics at Somersetshire College, and later moved to Babbacombe in south Devon, where he lived on a private income supplemented by occasional teaching. He published three volumes of poems and wrote several hymns. He died at Newport, Monmouthshire, on March 10, 1917.

The tune DIX derives its name from the fact that it was used for the hymn, “As With Gladness Men of Old,” written by William Dix (see SDAH 123). It was published in 1838 in a collection of hymns by Conrad Kocher (1786-1872; see SDAH 123). For William Monk (1823-1889), see SDAH 50.

📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.