Help us, O Lord, to learn

Like 552, here is a ‘pre-hymn-explosion’ text from the comparatively sparse 1950s which is steadily becoming established in several traditions. It is among the most succinct of texts expressing our response to hearing the Bible, and is often sung before or after a Scripture reading, or (where there is more than one) between two of them. The author, William Watkins Reid Jnr, was responding to an appeal from the International Journal of Religious Education, via the Hymn Society of America, for new hymns on Christian education and the church’s teaching responsibilities. Nearly 400 were submitted; this was selected and duly published by the Society in its 1959 booklet, Fifteen New Christian Education Hymns. Ten years on it entered the British scene in 100 Hymns for Today, entitled ‘Living the Faith’—a title which reflects stz 2. The language has usually been updated since the 1970s from ‘thy’ to ‘your’ throughout, and 3.3 modified from ‘that yearning souls may find …’

In 1969 and subsequently the words have been set to SANDYS (in C); the tune EASTNOR appears in GH with Wesley’s Jesus, we look to thee. The composer, not to be confused with the contemporary hymnwriter Andrew King, may be Alfred King, 1837–1926. Eastnor is close to Ledbury in the county of Hereford and Worcester.

b New York City, USA 1923; d 2007. Oberlin Coll and Yale Divinity Sch. From 1943 to 1945 he worked with the Medical Corps in the US Army and spent 8 months as a prisoner of war. Ordained to the ministry of the Episcopal Methodist Ch, he then served in Congregational and Methodist churches in N Dakota and in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, and in 1978 became District Supt for Wilkes-Barre (Penns) in the United Methodist Ch. In retirement he served as a County Commissioner for Wyoming County.He was active in the Hymn Soc in the US and Canada and (like his hymnwriting father W W Reid, a former Secretary of the Society) wrote many articles and papers on hymnody. The Canadian ‘Hymn and Worship Book’ Voices United (1996) is among N American hymnals to feature texts by both father and son. Among his other hymns, O God of every nation has been popular in the USA. No.554.