The original 12 stanza of this missionary hymn were written by George Kitchin as a processional for a festival to be held in June 1887 in Winchester Cathedral by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.  Rewritten by Michael Newbolt, it was first printed in the 1916 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern.  It is based on John 12:32.  Several alternations have been made to change some of the male-oriented language.

                George William Kitchin was born December 7, 1827, at Naughton, Suffolk, England.  He was educated at King’s College School and Christ Church, Oxford, and was ordained an Anglican minister in 1852.  His distinguished career included being a tutor at Oxford, headmaster at a school in Twyford, first censor (overseer of morality, or chaplain) of noncollegiate students at Oxford for 15 years, lecturer in history at several colleges, dean of Winchester cathedral (1883-1894), dean of Durham Cathedral (1894- 1912), and from 1909 the chancellor of the University of Durham.  His published writings include works on history, biography, and archaeology.  He died October 13, 1912, at Durham.

              Michael Robert Newbolt, born in 1874 at Dymock, Gloucestershire, England, went to Radley School and St. John’s College, Oxford.  Ordained a deacon (assistant to the priest) in the Church of England in 1899, and a priest in 1900, he served a number of churches in Oxfordshire, then in Brighton, and finally as canon of Chester Cathedral (1927-1946).  He died February 7, 1956.

            Sydney Hugo Nicholson 91875-1947; see FENITON, SDAH 147) was the founder of the School of English Church music.  For nine years he was the organist at Westminster Abbey.  He wrote CRUCIFER (Crossbearing) for these words; it was first used in the 1916 supplement to Hymns Ancient and Modern.  Carl Schalk has made a fine choral arrangement of this tune.