God, whose almighty word

Following four texts of 3 stzs each (Father, Son, Spirit), this classic hymn reverts to the traditional 4-stz form where the final lines are addressed to God in Trinity—the Three-in-One (cf 153, 164 etc). John Marriott’s text, originally Thou whose eternal word, was written c1813 but in accordance with the author’s wishes not published in his lifetime. ‘The Holy Trinity is a missionary’ said Canon Michael Farrer of Ely, and this missionary hymn moves naturally and strongly from the old or natural creation (Genesis 1:1–5) to the new (2 Corinthians 4:6), incorporating several gospel concepts. Thomas Mortimer quoted it when addressing a meeting of the (mainly Congregational) London Missionary Society on 12 May 1825 in Great Queen St Chapel, London. Quoting the speech in its report, the June issue of the Evangelical Magazine (shortly followed by The Friendly Visitor) took the opportunity of printing the full hymn. Its first hymnal appearance seems to have been in the 1853 Supplement to Dr Watts’ Psalms and Hymns (ed by Raffles); the 1988 Companion to Hymns and Psalms goes so far as to say ‘since then the hymn has appeared in numerous books, but hardly any two have printed identical words’. Colin Hodgetts (1959) offered a completely new stz 3. However we assess the commonly agreed replacement of ‘eternal’ with ‘almighty’, for once the loss of an initial ‘Thou’ is more than compensated by enabling us to start with ‘God’—that is, the Father—as first published in HTC.

Although the words have allegedly been sung to the National Anthem tune, they are now rarely set to any but MOSCOW, which Felice de Giardini composed for the anonymous Come, thou almighty King, and which has since acquired several other texts. It first appeared, with 3 others by Giardini, in the 1769 Lock Collection, A Collection of Psalm-Tunes never published before, edited by Martin Madan, chaplain to the Lock Hospital in London. The first A&M set it to Marriott’s words. The composer died in Moscow.

b Cottesbach, nr Lutterworth, Leicestershire 1780, d St Giles in the Fields, London 1825. Rugby Sch and Christ Church Coll Oxford; BA 1802, a 1st class degree in the first ever public exam for such honours, MA 1806. After ordination (CofE) in 1804; he became a private tutor at Dalkeith to the son of the Duke of Buccleuch, then the Duke’s domestic chaplain. From 1808 to his death he held the nominal post of Rector of Church Lawford, Warwickshire, which he staffed with curates while himself living and ministering in and around Torquay and Exeter, Devon. His Exeter work included the churches of St James and St Lawrence and the nearby village of Broadclyst, owing to his wife’s poor health. He published 2 volumes of sermons but none of his hymns; some were printed without permission and others posthumously. In the opening lines of Marmion: a Tale of Flodden Field (1808), Marriott’s friend Sir Walter Scott dedicated the work to him. No.158.