Joseph Bromehead (1747-1826) published, in 1795, the Eckington Psalms and Hymns, in which this hymn appears. In the preface he expresses with regret his inability to name the authors of many of the selections; this one is identified simply by the initials F.B.P. This probably refers to Francis Baker, pater (or priest), a Roman Catholic imprisoned for his faith in the Tower of London during the sixteenth century. Some Roman Catholic authorities state that the author was Father Laurence Anderton, who lived during the reign of King Charles I.

A British Museum manuscript, which is undated but of the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, gives a text of 26 four-line stanzas under the title “A Song Made by F.B.P. To the Tune of Diana.” SDAH stanzas are Nos. 1, 7, 17, the two latter altered; the fourth stanza is from some other source. The committee chose to use these four stanzas as they appeared in the SDA Hymns and Tunes, 1869.

LAND OF REST is a tune Annabel Buchanan heard as a child when her grandmother, Sarah Ann (Love) Foster, sang it with the words, “O land of rest, for thee I sigh.” It had been printed with those words in J. R. Graves’ Little Seraph in 1873. It is thought to be of Scottish origin, and it certainly has that “flavor.” Very popular through the Appalachian mountain region, it was arranged by Buchanan and included in her Folk Hymns of America, 1938. Because of the obvious similarities in the melodies, she thinks the spiritual “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” may be derived from this tune. It is almost all in the pentatonic (five-note) scale. A version of this tune is in the 1844 Original Sacred Harp, attributed to W. S. Turner and titled NEW PROSPECT.

Annabel Morris Buchanan was born October 22, 1888, in Groesbeck, Texas; she graduated in 1907 from Landon Conservatory of Music, Dallas. After study of composition, organ, and piano with private teachers in New York City, she taught all these subjects in colleges in Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia. Her main claim to fame has been her activity with the Federation of Music Clubs and in the contribution she has made in collecting, arranging, and publishing American folk music. She has written articles on her research for many periodicals, and a number of books, including American Folk Music and Book of American Composers. Her private collection of books, recordings, and manuscripts are now in the library of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. After she broke her hip, she lived in a convalescent center in Paducah, Kentucky, and died in 1983.

📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.