Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879) wrote this hymn at Leamington, England, in 1874, titled “Perfect Peace—In Illness” and printed it in her Loyal Responses, 1878. It was based on Isaiah 48:18: “Then had thy peace been as a river.” The first half of the third stanza has been altered somewhat, as will be seen when compared with the original, which was:

Every joy or trial
Falleth from above
Traced upon the dial
By the Sun of Love

WYE VALLEY is the name of a beautiful river that, in its lower reaches, separates England and Wales. Tintern Abbey ruins, and the bend at Symonds Yat in Particular, are examples of its scenic attractions. It is an appropriate name for this tune, written for a “river glorious.” The tune was composed especially for this text and published in Mountain’s Hymns od Consecration and Faith, 1876, and bore the title “Perfect Peace.”

James Mountain was born on July 16, 1844, at Leeds, Yorkshire, England, and educated for the ministry of the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion at Rotherham College, Nottingham Institute, and Cheshunt College. After a short while as pastor of Great Marlow in Buckinghamshire he suffered a health breakdown, and for a time did some traveling and studying at Heidelberg and Tübingen, Germany.

When Dwight L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey visited England, Mountain caught the evangelistic spirit and conducted several “missions” in England and other lands from 1874 to 1889. In 1897 he accepted the Baptist view of baptism and founded the Tunbridge Wells Baptist Church, which he pastored till his retirement, and where he died June 27, 1933.

Mountain wrote religious books, articles, and hymn texts, but is best known for his hymn tunes. The Keswick Hymn-Book, c.1940, contained 14 of his tunes, many of which show a decided leaning toward the gospel song style of Ira Sankey (see SDAH 208)

Noticeable in the melody are the many pairs of repeated notes, which accounted for 72 percent of the song!