DEAR LORD & FATHER OF MANKIND

I am reading through the book I mentioned I had bought on the Nation's Favourite Hymns. One of my favourites has been the above written by John Greenleaf Whittier who is a well known writer of hymns. Apparently, he wanted to be a poet but his father resisted him saying that poetry would not give him bread. He became a journalist instead but when his father died he had to return home to run the family farm. He soon found that he could not cope with the physical labour of farming.

At this time, slavery was a burning issue in the United States. Using his journalistic skills, Whittier took up the anti slavery cause, calling it 'the national crime'. He was frequently abused and attcked but he was not afraid of unpopularity and he found great solace in writing poetry.

In 1872 he wrote what he called a hymn poem 'The Brewing of Soma'. It had 17 verses and verse 12 is the start of the hymn that Songs of Praise viewers voted into second place (2002), 'Dear Lord & Father of mankind'.

The first eleven verses? The clue lies in the title of the original poem. The 'soma' that Whittier described in the poem was a drug - a potent drink brewed by Hindu priests that induced wild and uncontrollable behaviour.

Dear Lord & Father of mankind, forgive our foolish ways!

Reclothe us in our rightful mind; in purer lives thy service find,

in deeper reverence praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard beside the Syrian sea

the gracious calling of the Lord, let us, like them, without a word

rise up and follow thee.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee! O calm of hills above; where Jesus knelt to share with thee

the silence of eternity interpreted by love!

With that deep hush subduing all our words and works that drown

the tender whisper of thy call, as noiseless let the blessing fall, as fell thy manna down.

Drop thy still dews of quietness, till all our strivings cease; take from our souls the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire thy coolness and thy balm;

let sense be dumb; let flesh retire;

speak through the earthquake, wind and fire,

O still small voice of calm!

(I like the three verses especially).

The tune which usually accompanies the hymn is called Repton by C Hubert Parry.