This hymn by Percy Dearmer (1867-1936; see SDAH 259) reminds us but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.” The in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, of the words of Paul in 1 Timothy 6:17: “Charge them that are rich Original first line was “Father, who on man dost shower.”

Written first for the English Hymnal, 1906, for which book Dearmer was editor, it was used with the tune QUEM PASTORES. But in 1931, when Songs of Praise was published, a new, more vigorous tune, CHARING, was composed for the text by Studley Leslie Lane Russell. He was born July 7, 1901, in Staines, Middlesex, England, and studied at Clifton College, Christ Church, Oxford, where he held a scholarship in organ, and at the Royal College of Music, where he studied viola, piano, and composition. His work in the latter was so outstanding that he won the Octavia traveling scholarship, which enabled him to go to Vienna for advanced work. Back in England, he became director of music at Sutton Valence School in Kent. He died in 1978.

CHARING is named for a town about eight miles from the village of Sutton Valence.

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