HOLY SPIRIT
SDAH 261
The Spirit of the Lord revealed
His will to saints of old;
Their heart and mind lips unsealed
His glory to unfold.
Text
1
The Spirit of the Lord revealed
His will to saints of old;
Their heart and mind lips unsealed
His glory to unfold.
Amid the gloom of ancient night
They hailed the dawning Word,
And in the coming of the light
Proclaimed the coming Lord.
2
The prophets passed; at length there came
To sojourn and abide,
The Word incarnate, to whose name
The prophets testified;
And He, the twilight overpast,
Himself, the Light of light,
As man with man, revealed at last
The Father to our sight.
3
Eternal Spirit, who dost speak
To mind and conscience still,
That we in this our day, may seek
To do our Father’s will,
To us the word of life impart,
Of Christ, the living way;
Give us the quiet, humble heart
To hear and to obey.
Hymn Info
Biblical Reference
(a) Heb 1:1 (b) Heb 1:2; John 1:1; John 14:9 (c) John 6:63
Author
George W. Briggs (1875-1959)
Copyright
Words from Enlarged Songs of Praise by permission of Oxford University Press
Hymn Tune
SOLL’S SEIN
Metrical Number
C.M.D.
Edited
David Gregor Corner (1585-1648)
Tune Source
Melody from Geistliche Nachtigal, Vienna, 1658
Hymn Score
Piano Accompaniment
Notes
Get to know the hymns a little deeper with the SDA Hymnal Companion. Use our song leader’s notes to engage your congregation in singing with understanding. Even better, involve kids in learning this hymn with our homeschooling materials.
These words were written by George W. Briggs especially for Songs of Praise, 1931, to be with the tune WOLDER. Later Briggs revised it for Songs of Faith, 1945, where it carried the title “The Spirit of Wisdom.”
George Wallace Briggs was born December 14, 1875, at Kirkby, Nottinghamshire, England, and was a scholar of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. After ordination as an Anglican priest, he served in the Royal Navy as a chaplain for seven years. He pastored two churches from 1909 to 1927; then he was appointed canon of Leicester Cathedral,1927-1934, and canon of Worcester Cathedral, 1934-1956. He assisted in editing several hymnals, including, with Percy Dearmer (see SDAH 259), Song of Praise ,1931. One of the founders of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland, in 1957 he produced Hymns of the Faith for his Worcester Cathedral. One of his main concerns was to provide quality hymns to be sung by students in the schools. He died at Hindhead, Surrey, December 30, 1959.
The musical editor of the English Hymnal, 1906, Ralph Vaughan Williams (see Biographies), wedded this tune SOLLS SEIN to “The Summer Days Are Come Again,” by Samuel Longfellow, He found the melody in the book Drei schone neue geistliche Leider (Three Beautiful New Spiritual Songs), Munich, 1637. It was later included in D.G. Corner’s Geistliche Nachtigal (Sacred Nightingale), 1658. Erik Routley first matched the tune with these words of Canon Brigg’s in Congregational Praise, 1953. The arrangement printed there is the one SDAH uses, but with the note values halved, half notes becoming quarter notes.
David Gregor Corner was born in 1585 at Hirschberg, Silesia, and studied at the University of Prague. Ordained a Catholic priest in 1614, he served churches at Rotz and Mautern; in 1625 he entered the Benedictine monastery at Gotweig, becoming its abbot in 1631. He was responsible for a Catholic hymnal, Gross Catholiches Gesangbuch (Great Catholic Hymnal, 1625), which enjoyed seven printings up to 1676. In 1638 he became rector of the University of Vienna, where he had received an honorary doctorate of theology in 1614. He died in Gottweig, January 9, 1648.
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