Have faith in God, my heart

Like 678 a century earlier, the 16 lines of Bryn Rees’ hymn on faith first divides a biblical triad into its constituent parts, then in stz 4 achieves a neat synthesis. The first hymn does it in CM; this one in the even more succinct SM; both rhyming abab. Both authors take a risk, in this case of implying that heart, mind and soul can be viewed separately; but their unity is reestablished at the end, as in Matthew 22:37. (That text quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 with a slightly different vocabulary; the hymn has reversed the order of ‘mind’ and ‘soul’, and applied the terms to faith rather than love.) The text was written in wartime, allegedly during an air-raid and so well before 1945; the Companion to Congregational Praise (the hymnal where it first appeared in 1951) says in one of its briefer notes ‘This bold hymn of faith was submitted in ms to the editorial committee, and is included by the author’s kind permission.’ It has since featured in many other books, and from at least 1979 onwards has appeared as here with ‘you/your’ instead of ‘thou/thy’ in stzs 2 and 4. In addition, 2.2 emends ‘though oft thy light burns low’, and ‘tear’ replaces ‘pluck’ at 3.3.

The words were first set to CARLISLE (198); another option is CAMBRIDGE (540). As in GH, Arthur Sullivan’s IN MEMORIAM, distinct from other tunes so named, is first choice. It features in the 1933 Methodist Hymn Book (set to H F Lyte’s My Spirit on thy care) but in few other current hymnals.

b Chelsea, W London 1911, d Epping, Essex 1983. His family moved to the manse at Neath, S Wales, in 1912, so he attended Neath Grammar Sch; then trained for the Congregational ministry at Hackney and New College, N London. He was ordained in 1935, and ministered in churches at Sawbridgeworth (Herts, 1935–40), Ipswich (Suffolk, 1940–45), Felixstowe (Suffolk, 1945–50), then Muswell Hill (N London, 1950–62), Woodford Green (Essex, 1962–72) and Epping (1972–76), where he remained active in retirement. He was also an RAF chaplain. Among his writing was a cantata, The Saviour. Rejoice and Sing includes 3 of his hymns, two of which (with a 3rd) are in Praise!; Of these, 672 and 758 (the latter appearing in Congregational Praise 1951 and GH etc) have come into wide use. Nos.380, 672, 758.