Here, O my Lord, may I behold your face

‘The cross heals’, wrote Horatius Bonar in 1864; ‘It possesses the double virtue of killing sin and quickening holiness.’ In God’s Way of Holiness from which these words come the writer deals with many themes which he had earlier put into verse in this, the best-known of his Communion hymns. Like 644 it has been welcomed, whole or in part, across a complete spectrum of churches and hymnals which differ widely in other matters. It also contains elements, such as stz 4, rarely found in such approaches to this occasion. It owes its origin to the annual visit paid by the author from Kelso to his brother John James Bonar, minister of St Andrew’s Free Church at Greenock, for the Communion service there. The host church was customarily provided with a leaflet with the hymn(s) and intimations/announcements, and in Oct 1855 the visiting brother was asked to provide a new hymn to be printed for that Sunday. 10 stzs were ‘readily supplied’; they then featured in Hymns of Faith and Hope in 1857 with some revisions and the heading ‘Do this in remembrance of me’. They are now normally reduced to 7 stzs or less; although some hymnals present them without division, the two parts are usefully indicated for singing respectively before and after receiving the sacrament. The stz beginning ‘This is the hour of banquet and of song’ is retained by some books, but line 4 has been thought inadequate by many and rewritten by others: ‘the brief, bright hour of fellowship with thee’.

A larger difficulty is raised by the original first line, ‘Here, O my Lord, see thee face to face.’ Scriptures such as 1 Corinthians 13:12 apply this OT phrase (Genesis 32:30 etc) to the saints’ experience in heaven rather than on earth (see also Revelation 22:4), and it was thought best to keep to this use of such language. The hymn which concludes this section, Denny’s 662, is a good example of more accurate biblical usage. An alternative is not easy to find; a draft of ‘your wounded face’ was eventually rejected. Other changes are minimal, such as ‘may’ for ‘would’ at 1.2, and ‘here’ for ‘thus’ at 6.1.

The tune EVENTIDE by George Alexander Pope is that used in GH (where it is called POPE’S EVENTIDE and dated 1876) but rarely elsewhere. The name is also in use for tunes by J Hayhurst and, best known, by W H Monk (905), suggesting the name for that tune and possibly this one. The words are also commonly set to James Langran’s ST AGNES (233) or TOULON (301).

b Edinburgh 1808, d Edinburgh 1889. Edinburgh High Sch and Univ; licensed to preach (Ch of Scotland) and became asst. to the Minister at Leith, where his first hymns were written as a response to the children who needed more than archaic Psalmody. With other young men he engaged in mission work in the city’s homes, courtyards and alleyways. Five of his own 9 children died while young. From 1837 he was Minister of the North Parish beside the Tweed in Kelso; then at the 1843 ‘disruption’ he became a founder member of the Free Ch of Scotland but (unlike many) was able to continue his existing ministry at Kelso. He edited the Quarterly Journal of Prophecy 1848–73; Hon DD (Aberdeen) 1853; he visited Palestine 1855–6 and drew much imagery from his experiences there. From 1866, he was Minister of the Chalmers Memorial Free Ch, Edinburgh; from 1883, Moderator of the Free Church’s General Assembly. ‘Always a Presbyterian’, and a keen student of the Classics and early church fathers, he wrote about one book every year; his Words to Winners of Souls has proved of special value to Jerry E White, President of The Navigators a century later. Bonar was a frequent attender and speaker at London’s Mildmay Conferences; see under W Pennefather. As well as being committed to prayer, preaching and visiting, he wrote some 600 warmly evangelical hymns and other Psalm paraphrases, earning him the title ‘prince of Scottish hymn-writers’. Some were designed specifically for the visiting American singer (with Moody), Ira D Sankey. About 100 reached publication; many were written very rapidly but enjoyed great popularity in their day, and his lifetime witnessed a great change in what was sung in Scottish churches. The Keswick Hymn Book (1938) featured 17 of these and Hymns of Faith (1964), 13. But while the 1898 edn of the Scottish Church Hymnary included 18 texts (more than from any other author), CH3 (1975) found room for 8 and the 2005 book reduces these to 5; posterity has been less than kind to his wider reputation. Among those not quite forgotten is ‘All that I was – my sins, my guilt,/ my death was all my own;/ all that I am I owe to thee,/ my gracious God alone.’

A clause in Bonar’s will stipulated that no memoir should be published, but in the year after his death his son H N Bonar published Until the Day Break, and other Hymns and poems left behind, and in 1904 and further hymn selection with notes. Julian laments the hymnwriter’s ‘absolute indifference to dates and details’, while Routley is lukewarm about much of his work, and on receiving the news of his death, Ellerton acknowledged his limited vision, unpoetic lines and occasional triteness—‘But he is a believer. He speaks of that which he knows; of him whom he loves, and whom, God be praised, he now sees at last’—JE, 1889. Like this English hymnologist, several other historians have at least admitted Scotland’s debt to one who probably did more than anyone to bring hymns into the mainstream of the church’s and the nation’s song. Nos.151, 271, 581, 648, 701, 710, 793, 801, 838, 855, 874, 1284