This hymn of four stanzas was written especially for Trinity Sunday by Reginald Heber (1783-1826; see on SDAH 47). It is a metrical paraphrase of Revelation 4:8-11: “They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come…. The four and twenty elders fall down before him… and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things.”

NICAEA was composed especially for these words by John Bacchus Dykes (1823-1876; see Biographies) in 1861. It is named after the ancient city (now Iznik) in Asia Minor where a church council of 300 bishops assembled in A.D. 325. They had met to decide the controversy regarding the Godhead and the position of Christ. Arius maintained the Jesus was not equal to, nor of the same substance, as God the Father. His doctrine was condemned by the council, and the teaching of Athanasius supporting the Trinity and the unity of the Godhead was incorporated as an article as an article of the faith. The words of the last line recall the Nicene Creed, which Dykes obviously supported by his choice of tune name.