A mind at perfect peace with God

The author Catesby Paget (whose dates have not been discovered) is known for this one hymn, the distinctive lines of which have ensured its continued use in a small number of significant evangelical books. The New Redemption Hymnal (1986) heads it ‘This indeed is Peace’, quoting Ephesians 2:13; Philippians 4:7 could be added, and clearly Isaiah 26.3, used in GH, is seminal to the opening lines. Except for ‘near’ for ‘nigh’ (3.1, as in GH) virtually no change is needed until the final lines, which originally read, ‘… since such a God is mine?/ He watches o’er me night and day,/ and tells me ‘Mine is thine’.

The tune DUNDEE (=FRENCH) has a long history and has been set to many different hymns, often coming more than once in the same hymnal (eg 3 times in the Anglican Hymn Book). It was gregarious from the start, being one of the 12 ‘Common Tunes’ in Andro Hart’s The CL [150] Psalmes of David published in Edinburgh in 1635, where it is called FRENCH TUNE. However, Psalm 121 almost commandeered the tune in the version I to the hills will lift mine eyes (see the notes to 121 in the present book). It is referred to (with other tunes) in Robert Burns’ poem ‘The Cotter’s Saturday Night’: ‘Perhaps Dundee’s wild warbling measures rise …’ Even from the 17th c, the rhythm and harmonies have varied slightly; some books begin each line with a longer or ‘gathering’ note, more appropriate to some texts than others. In 1982 Wesley Milgate, confessing ‘with appropriate shame’ to a prejudice against the tune and discussing its alternative names, said he was ‘not surprised that the Scots father it upon the French … and the English upon the Scots’. In Ravenscroft’s Whole Booke of Psalmes (1621) it is called DUNDY TUNE; Dundee was a Scottish haven for protestant refugees from the European continent. Other (English) names given to it have now been dropped. Among other hymns set to the tune elsewhere are 256, 375 and 583.

b ?England 1868, d 1930. Coming from a family including both ecclesiastical and military traditions featured in Burke’s Peerage, this one of several historic Catesby’s belonged to those then known as the Plymouth Brethren. Little has been discovered about his life, but he engaged in published controversy in response to (mainly Anglican) contemporaries including Lord Shaftesbury and Bp Ryle, often in booklet or pamphlet form. A handful of evangelical and Pentecostal hymn-books include the one remarkable hymn for which he is known. It appears in the 1890 Golden Bells; indications are that the writer was at home with the pietist (or ‘Keswick’) tradition. No.713.