Breathe on me, breath of God

In both Heb and Gk one word serves for ‘spirit’ and ‘breath’; the concepts are vividly united in such texts as Genesis 1:2 and 2:7; Ezekiel 37:9; John 3:3–8 and 20:22. This new section on the Holy Spirit fittingly opens with a hymn expressing this biblical reality, and addressing the third Person of the Holy Trinity as the ‘Breath of God’. Edwin Hatch, who had written it by 1878, is one of those distinguished Victorian scholars whose notable academic ministry has been eclipsed by a single, simple hymn appealing to all sections of the church of Christ; the professor speaks plainly. It first appeared privately as a hymn suitable for ordination, in a leaflet that year with the intriguing title ‘Between Doubt and Prayer’; he later called the hymn ‘Spiritus Dei’. In 1886 it was published in The Congregational Psalmist Hymnal (ed Henry Allon) and in 1890 in Towards Fields of Light: Sacred Poems, a memorial volume prepared by his widow. The Jubilate version mainly used here emends 1.3 from ‘that I may love what thou dost love’, 2.3 from ‘until with thee I will one will’, and 3.2,4 from ‘blend all my soul with thine [now commonly ‘till I am wholly thine] … glows with thy fire divine’. The place of the believer’s will in either form of stz 2 has been contrasted with that in 850; both have biblical models.

Partly owing to problems of rhythm and accentuation, editors have not agreed on an obvious tune. CARLISLE (198), ST GEORGE (864), WINDERMERE and DOMINICA are all in wide use, as is Robert Jackson’s TRENTHAM chosen here. This was composed for H W Baker’s O perfect life of love (435), and appeared in Fifty Sacred Leaflets in 1888. Erik Routley was not keen on it, but it is popular among Free Churches and in N America. Trentham is a village near Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs; some books give it as his birthplace, which was actually Oldham.

b Derby 1835, d Headington, Oxford 1889. King Edward’s Sch, Birmingham and Pembroke Coll Oxford (BA 1857). Before going to Oxford, in 1853, he left nonconformity to join the CofE, and afterwards, in 1859, he was ordained. After ministry in urban E London he was appointed Prof of Classics at the Univ of Toronto, Canada. He returned to Oxford in 1867 as Vice-Principal of St Mary’s Hall, then Rector of Purleigh (Essex) in 1883, and became the University’s Reader in Ecclesiastical History from 1885 for his remaining years, having been the Bampton Lecturer (on the organisation of the early church) for 1880. This work was translated by Harnack for publication in German – the reverse of the usual direction of such work. To this were added in 1888 his Hibbert Lectures on Gk influence on the church; he also wrote on the Septuagint, the Gk version of the OT. He was made an Hon DD by Edinburgh Univ in 1883. His widow published a collection of his verse, Towards Fields of Light, in the year following his sudden death. He was known as a learned academic with an essentially childlike and humble faith. ‘His hymn-writing was limited’, says Julian; but he is now remembered for one succinct, widely-used and enduring text, almost 90% of it written in monosyllables. No.517.