All who wake tonight

A new section of the book on ‘Those in need’ (9g) consists of five 20th-c items; some needs remain the same, but our perception and expression of them will change in each generation. Whether consciously or not, John Ferguson draws on two other 20th-c texts. He takes the 1st line of a wedding hymn in the same metre written in 1978 by Basil Bridge, Jesus, Lord, we pray, uses it in the repeated 5th line and builds his petitions around it. More notably for its theme, the hymn has many affinities with For all who watch tonight by Constance Lady Coote (née Headlam), published in 1912. It appeared in the author’s ‘small collection’ printed at Birmingham where he lived and taught in 1982, Hymns of a Layman and Other Verses, where it is no. 2 (of about a hundred, some being in several parts). There it is headed ‘Evening Hymn’, and a note indicates that like others in the booklet it had been accepted for the projected Anglican Hymns for Worship. In the event this hymnal was not published, and Praise! is the first to include the hymn. Stainer and Bell hold the copyright, but did not include the text when featuring John Ferguson’s work in their Hymns and Congregational Songs series shortly after his death. While reflecting human needs which often feature in our prayers, not least those of the carers, the hymn certainly fills a gap in our normal repertoire of singing.

Adam Drese’s tune ARNSTADT (=SPIRE, THURINGIA or SEELENBRÄUTIGAM) is the one recommended for both Basil Bridge’s hymn and this one. The last of these names comes from the German text Seelenbräutigam, Jesu Gottes Lamm, the composer’s own words for which he wrote the music. They appeared together in the 1698 collection from Darmstadt, Geistreiches Gesang-Buch … Drese was born in Thuringia and died at Arnstadt. Of several arrangements of the tune, S S Wesley’s is chosen here.

b Manchester 1921, d Birmingham 1989. Having trained in classics and theology he was appointed Prof of Classics at the Univ of Ibadan, Nigeria; and became founding Dean of Arts in the UK’s Open University; President of the Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham. An amateur actor, playwright, cricketer, singer and musical conductor who directed Gilbert and Sullivan operas, he also wrote more than 70 books including The Enthronement of Love (1950), Nigeria under the Cross (1965); Disarmament: the Unanswerable Case (1982) and Give Peace a Chance (1988). He was a lay preacher, mainly in the URC, and hymnal committee chairman. A convinced Christian pacifist, with his wife Elnora he co-edited Reconciliation Quarterly for the Fellowship of Reconciliation (which he chaired for many years) and was in demand as a conference speaker. In the early 1960s he took part in the ground-breaking hymnwriting initiatives of the groups meeting in Dunblane, Scotland. His Hymns of a Layman and Other Verses featured nearly 100 of his texts, with his own Foreword summarising his view of hymns; other selections appeared in a supplementary hymnbook for the Univ of Ibadan and in the periodical Hymns and Congregational Songs, notably in a posthumous issue (with 7 of his texts) in Oct 1990. Rejoice and Sing (1991) is one of a dozen books to include Am I my brother’s keeper? (1967, a 1st line used by J Ryland in 1786), which like many of his verses brings the OT to bear on both the Christian gospel and its implications for social needs; see also the notes on Ryland. No.943.