Earth was waiting, spent and restless

In contrast to Walter C Smith’s only other contribution to this book (the sonorous 248), this ‘song of expectation’ has recently recovered a little from early neglect (cf the previous item, 355) and includes ideas and incidents not common in hymn books. Like Immortal, invisible it appeared in his Hymns of Christ and the Christian life, published in his native Scotland in 1876. The Baptist Hymn Book of 1962 (following the 1900 edn) kept all 5 stzs in circulation, as did Baptist Praise and Worship, 1991. Sadly, HTC was content with only 3; CH, Anglican Praise 1987 and PHRW each have 4, as here. The ‘missing’ 2nd stz is almost Miltonic: ‘Still the gods were in their temples,/ but the ancient faith had fled;/ and the priests stood by their altars/ only for a piece of bread;/ and the oracles were silent,/ and the prophets were all dead.’ (Magnificent; but a hymn?) The version used here changes 1.3 from ‘and the faithful few were sighing’; 2.5 from ‘because of wisdom’, changed for clarification; 4.1 from ‘travailed’. In the penultimate line, PHRW alters ‘Son of Mary’ to ‘Son of Promise’. The references to Luke 1 and 2, Mark 11 and Romans 8 are unmistakable.

But opinions vary about tunes. CANTICA SACRA (as first published), ORIEL (taken from it), RHUDDLAN (419=950), LINGWOOD (from 1916?), and RIDLEY (1986) have all been in the frame. For Joachim Neander’s strong tune known as UNSER HERRSCHER, see 297, note. It may be that the hymn is still waiting, if not quite groaning, for its ideal partner. It would not be the first to have to wait so long.

b Aberdeen 1824, d Kinbuck, Dunblane, Perthshire (Stirling) 1908. Aberdeen Grammar Sch and Marischal Coll; Aberdeen Univ (MA 1841); then studied under Thos Chalmers at New Coll Edinburgh. After a probationary period at Newburgh. Aberdeenshire, he was ordained in 1850 to minister to the Ch of Scotland congregation meeting in Chadwell St, Pentonville, N London. After an undistinguished beginning there he returned north in 1854 to pastor Orwell Free Ch at Milnathort nr Kinross, followed by the Free Tron Ch, Glasgow, 4 years later. From 1876 and for some 20 years until his retirement in 1896 he was Minister of the Free High Ch in Edinburgh. Although the Free Church’s 1867 General Assembly had ‘affectionately admonished him’ for some liberal tendencies, and he added to this the offence of wanting a more relaxed form of subscription to the Confession of Faith, he became the Assembly’s Moderator for its Jubilee year 1893. He published several books including collections of hymns and other verse (1902); ‘rich in thought and vigorous in expression’, says F M Bird in Julian. These included several humorous and ‘unpretentious’ poems, some over pseudonyms. Even in Scotland, no more than 2 of his hymns seem to have lasted; one remains well-known but both usually appear in a truncated form. Having been awarded a Glasgow DD in 1869, to which both Aberdeen and Edinburgh Univs added the LLD (1876 and 1893), he died at home a little short of his 84th birthday. Nos.248, 356.