John Ernest Bode was rector of Castle Camps, near Cambridge, England, at the time when his three children, a daughter and two sons, were confirmed as communicants in the Church of England. For their confirmation service he wrote a special hymn, “O Jesus, We Have Promised,” which was printed in 1868 in a leaflet titled “Hymn for the Newly Confirmed.” There were six stanzas.

    Bode was born in St. Pancras, Middlesex, England, on February 23, 1816. He was educated at Eton and Charterhouse, and then went to Oxford, where he gained a B. A. in 1837 and a M. A. in 1840. He was a tutor and examiner for his college, Christ Church, from 1827 to 1843. He was ordained in the early 1840s, and in 1847 was appointed as a rector of Westwell, a small village near Oxford. From there he was transferred in 1860 to Castle Camps, where he ministered until his death on October 6, 1874. He published Hymns for the Gospel of the Day in 1860, and Short Occasional Poems in 1858.

     ANGEL’S STORY is so named because it was expressly composed in 1881, by Arthur Henry Mann, for the words of Emily Huntington Miller’s hymn, “I Love to Hear the Story Which Angel Voices Tell.” Mann was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England, on May 16, 1850. As a boy, he was a chorister in the cathedral in that city. Later he became assistant organist and then studied at Oxford University, where he gained the B. Mus. degree in 1874 and the D. Mus. in 1882. He was appointed organist at St. Peter’s Church in Wolverhampton in 1870, and from 1871 to 1875 was organist at nearby Tettenhall. In 1875 he was organist at Beverley Minster, near Hull in Yorkshire. The next year he became organist and choirmaster at King’s College, Cambridge, serving there until his death at Cambridge on November 19, 1929. Mann composed an oratorio, several hymn tunes, organ pieces, and anthems. He was a collector of early hymnbooks, specialized in Handel and his original manuscripts, and was editor of the Hymnal of the Church of England in 1895.