For ever with the Lord

‘… and so shall we ever be with the Lord’ (1 Thessalonians 4:17; cf Philippians 1:23 and note to 904). It is natural to conclude a hymn-book with a group of texts on ‘the last things’. But it is important to see such items, not as a necessary afterthought or PS, but as drawing together every other theme which precedes it, from the glory of the Godhead in Trinity to the revealed gospel of our Saviour Jesus Christ, from the struggles of the Christian life to the prayerful hope of the church, and from the seasons whose rhythm will one day end to the destiny of the world we know. James Montgomery, then, is a good name to lead us in to the themes of Resurrection, Heaven, and Glory. If the familiar length of his text makes it (like others on this subject) a substantial hymn, it remains brief, or less than half the length, when compared with his original marathon of 22 four-line stzs. These appeared in 1835 in the annual volume The Amethyst, and most subsequent printings make some attempt at abbreviation. As Cliff Knight observes, this is not easy as so many lines are both vivid and poetic; the author says that of all his hymns, only Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire (the original of 612) received more appreciation. It is still surprising that so many books (CH, GH, etc) omit what here is stz 3. Unforgettable lines such as 1.7–8 set an early standard in using biblical imagery in powerful and compact ways.

Inevitably, changes now need to be made, and the Praise! version emends 1.5 (from the puzzling ‘here in the body pent’); 4.2,7 (‘Father, if ’tis thy will/ … uphold thou me, and I shall stand’); and 5.1–2 (‘… my latest breath/ shall rend the veil in twain’; cf 625, stz 6). The opening five words, as at 4.1 and 5.7, are in quotation marks, but curiously are not an exact repetition of the AV text. As a funeral hymn for a Christian believer, it remains unsurpassed. Isaac Woodbury’s tune NEARER HOME, composed for these words and also known as MONTGOMERY, WOODBURY, or FOR EVER WITH THE LORD, has both its critics and its champions. It was published in 1852 (with a refrain which was later dropped) in the N American periodical The Choral Advocate. Arthur Sullivan’s arrangement, as used here and originally a tone higher, helped to establish it for use in British books. The crucial rhythm of line 6, which Sullivan varied in stz 2 to match the words, is not always noted by congregations. While no other tune seems to match the words so well (though 961 and ST ISHMAEL have been used), it has also been paired with 523.

b Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland 1771, d Sheffield 1854. His father John was converted through the ministry of John Cennick qv. James, the eldest son, was educated first at the Moravian centre at Fulneck nr Leeds, which expelled him in 1787 for wasting time writing poetry. By this time his parents had left England for mission work in the West Indies. In later life he regularly revisited the school; but having run away from a Mirfield bakery apprenticeship, failed to find a publisher in London, and lost both parents, he served in a chandler’s shop at Doncaster before moving to Sheffield, where from 1792 onwards he worked in journalism. Initially a contributor to the Sheffield Register and clerk to its radical editor, he soon became Asst Editor and (in 1796) Editor, changing its name to the Sheffield Iris. Imprisoned twice in York for his political articles, he was condemned by one jury as ‘a wicked, malicious and seditious person who has attempted to stir up discontent among his Majesty’s subjects’. In his 40s he found a renewed Christian commitment through restored links with the Moravians; championed the Bible Society, Sunday schools, overseas missions, the anti-slavery campaign and help for boy chimney-sweeps, refusing to advertise state lotteries which he called ‘a national nuisance’. He later moved from the Wesleyans to St George’s church and supported Thos Cotterill’s campaign to legalise hymns in the CofE. He wrote some 400, in familiar metres, published in Cotterill’s 1819 Selection and his own Songs of Zion, 1822; Christian Psalmist, or Hymns Selected and Original, in 1825—355 texts plus 5 doxologies, with a seminal ‘Introductory Essay’ on hymnology—and Original Hymns for Public, Private and Social Devotion, 1853. 1833 saw the publication of his Royal Institution lectures on Poetry and General Literature.

In the 1825 Essay he comments on many authors, notably commending ‘the piety of Watts, the ardour of Wesley, and the tenderness of Doddridge’. Like many contemporary editors he was not averse to making textual changes in the hymns of others. He produced several books of verse, from juvenilia (aged 10–13) to Prison Amusements from York and The World before the Flood. Asked which poems would last, he said, ‘None, sir, nothing— except perhaps a few of my hymns’. He wrote that he ‘would rather be the anonymous author of a few hymns, which should thus become an imperishable inheritance to the people of God, than bequeath another epic poem to the world’ on a par with Homer, Virgil or Milton. John Ellerton called him ‘our first hymnologist’; many see him as the 19th century’s finest hymn-writer, while Julian regards his earlier work very highly, the later hymns less so. 20 of his texts including Psalm versions are in the 1916 Congregational Hymnary, and 22 in its 1951 successor Congregational Praise; there are 17 in the 1965 Anglican Hymn Book and 26 in CH. In 2004, Alan Gaunt found 64 of them in current books, and drew attention to one not in use: the vivid account of Christ’s suffering and death in The morning dawns upon the place where Jesus spent the night in prayer. See also Peter Masters in Men of Purpose (1980); Bernard Braley in Hymnwriters 3 (1991) and Alan Gaunt in HSB242 (Jan 2005). Nos.152, 197, 198, 350*, 418, 484, 507, 534, 544, 610, 612, 641, 657*, 897, 959.