This hymn by Thomas Benson Pollock appeared in Supplemental Hymns to Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1889, under the title “Seeking God.” It recalls the rebuke addressed to the church of Ephesus: “Thou hast left thy first love” (Rev.2:4). Each of the four stanzas confess a sin of omission and pleads for cure, e. g. , light for ignorance, faith to generate godly fear, love to appreciate God’s love, and zeal for service. The last stanza summarizes these four aspects of communion with God.

        Pollock was born at Strahallan, Isle of Man, on May 28, 1836, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He began as a medical student but changed to theology and was ordained in 1861. He held various curacies until 1865, when he went to be curate to his brother, who was the vicar of St. Albans, Bordesley, Birmingham. It was in a poor district but he built a fine church there. However the brothers had very definite High Church leanings, and they were subjected to mob violence by those opposed to the Tractarian movement and Anglo-Catholicism. After 30 years there as a curate, he succeeded his brother as vicar, but died 10 months later at Bordesley, on December 15, 1896. Pollock also wrote SDAH 374, “Jesus, With Thy Church Abide.”

        ST. CHRYSOSTOM was composed in 1871 by Joseph Barnby (1838-1896; see Biographies) for a hymn in similar meter, “Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All.” Chrysostom, whose Greek name means “golden-mouth,” lived from A.D. 347 to 407; he earned this title because he was a most eloquent orator and theologian. At one time he was archbishop of Constantinople.