Come, Holy Spirit, like a dove descending

CH is one of the few recent books to include this hymn, which appeared in Ira D Sankey’s Sacred Songs and Solos from its 1888 edition onwards. The New Redemption Hymnal (1986) and one Moravian book have also retained it. Nothing has been discovered about the author, Robert Bruce; his name does not appear in the Sankey publisher’s (Marshall, Morgan and Scott’s) list of copyright holders, which may suggest that this is an older hymn. In stz 2, ‘saving grace’ here replaces ‘wondrous grace’. The hymn is headed by John 1:32, and its first stz clearly incorporates part of John 14:6. While it is clearly an invocation of the Holy Spirit, it is also a Christ-centred text; the Spirit’s work is to point to the Saviour. This is reflected in the Scripture above it in NRH, John 15:26.

With its first known printing, the hymn appears with Ira Sankey’s own tune; CH set it to RHYS by W J Evans, and NRH to Mendelssohn’s BERLIN (the alternative in CH). For Praise!, Linda Mawson’s SHORTLANDS is chosen, named from the district of Bromley a mile S of her home at that time. It was originally written for her friend Kay Statter’s text Man of sorrows—for me.

No information on this 19th-c author has yet come to light, apart from the evidence of his biblical faith in the hymn for which his name is known, and the fact that Sankey included his work in his 1888 selection and set it to his own tune. RB is not listed among the copyright holders. This text has been translated into Welsh and features in a small number of current hymn-books. No.519.