This hymn was written in 1899, originally in four eight-line stanzas, each about a different geographical location related to Jesus’ life and ministry-Bethlehem, Nazareth, Galilee, and Calvary. The hymn is a partial answer to a need the author recognized for hymns about the earthly life and ministry of Jesus. 

Louis Fitzgerald Benson, minister, scholar, editor, poet, and hymn writer, was the preeminent American hymnologist of his day, a great leader in the improvement of public and private worship. Born July 22, 1855, in Philadelphia, he studied law at the University of Pennsylvania and practiced at the bar for seven years. Unable to resist a call to the ministry, he studied at Princeton Theological Seminary and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1886. After six years as pastor in Germantown, Pennsylvania, he resigned and devoted the remainder of his life to editing a series of hymnals for the General Assembly of his church, including The Hymnal, 1895, and its revision in 1911, The Chapel Hymnal; and The School Hymnal. He wrote several books about hymns; The English Hymn is considered one of the most definitive on the subject. His extensive and valuable library of hymnology was presented to Princeton University upon his death. Benson died in Philadelphia, October 10, 1930. 

According to the Oxford Book of Carols, 1928, the tune KINGSFOLD was collected by Lucy E. Broadwood and printed in English Country Songs, 1893, to the words of “Dives and Lazarus,” but more probably it belongs to “Come, All You Worthy Christian Men.” In the Cowley Carol Book it was with a ballad beginning, “We are poor frozen-out gardeners,” and Benjamin Britten arranged it in one of his song collections with the Irish words, “The Star of County Down.” Kingsfold is a village in northwest Sussex. 

This is one of the wonderfully singable folk tunes that Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958; see Biographies) arranged and introduced into English Congregational singing. He liked it well enough to compose a fantasia for strings and harp called “Dives and Lazarus,” which is a “theme and variations” on various forms of this melody. As one gets acquainted with his creative arrangement of the hymn in SDAH, it will be noticed that score 1, score 2, and score 4, while having the same melody, each has its own harmonization. KINGSFOLD is also used for SDAH 465, “I Heard the Voice of Jesus.”