From more than 1,000 manuscripts submitted in the Hymn Society of America’s 1929 search for new missionary hymns, this one took first place. It was first sung at the Riverdale Presbyterian Church, New York, in 1930, and since then has found favor with the editors of many hymnals. The first part of each stanza extols the majesty and power of God, and the last of each is a prayer for clear vision to see the mission of the church in the world. This is an example of a number of hymns that could be placed under more than one topic.

The first half of stanza 2 and the last half of stanza 5 have been omitted.

Henry Hallam Tweedy was born August 5, 1868, at Binghamton, New York, and educated at Andover Academy and Yale University. After graduate study at Union Theological Seminary, New York, and Berlin University, he was ordained a Congregational minister and served churches in Utica, New York, and Bridgeport, Connecticut. For about 30 years, until 1937, he was professor of practical theology at Yale Divinity School, where he emphasized the importance of hymnology in the work of the minister. His study of the theology and poetry of hymns led him to try his hand at the art, but this is the only one of his hymns that has been used extensively. He wrote The Minister and His Hymnal and compiled a hymnal entitled Christian Worship and Praise in 1939. He died April 11, 1953, at Brattleboro, Vermont.

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958), noted for his research in and use of folk hymns, found FOREST GREEN in a small village of that name only five miles from Kingsfold (see SDAH 144), in Surrey, England. The original song was The Ploughboy’s Dream. He used it with O Little Town of Bethlehem (which at SDAH 135 is suggested as an alternate tune for that text) in English Hymnal, 1906, for which he was musical editor.

SDAH uses the tune again at SDAH 168, And Have the Bright Immensities.