Jesus, our hope, our hearts' desire

As is the way with comprehensive hymn-books, in moving forward one item we step back some 14 centuries but remain in the same mode of devotion to the Lord Jesus, and to singing ‘his name and praise’. Jesu, nostra redemptio, amor et desiderium … ; so began the anonymous Lat from the 7th or 8th c which was used during Ascensiontide at the late night service of Compline. John Chandler’s translation, now modified in nearly all books, appeared in his Hymns of the Primitive Church in 1837. It began, surprisingly in view of the Lat, ‘O Christ our hope …’; EH and the New English Hymnal preserve more of Chandler’s version. Adjustments made here include 2.2 (from ‘which laid our sins on thee’); ‘chains’ for ‘bonds’ in 3.1, followed by ‘at your Father’s side’ for ‘on your Father’s throne’; and ‘come before’ for ‘stand around’ in 4.3. Stz 5 is much closer to Chandler, where A&M etc read ‘Jesu, our only joy be thou/ as thou our prize wilt be;/ in thee be all our glory now/ and through eternity’ (cf 741 stz 5). Some of the changes are adopted from HTC which, however, prints only 4 of the 6 stzs

METZLER’S REDHEAD has been used with these words from A&M onwards. The preferred tune here, Arthur H Brown’s TILTEY ABBEY, was published in a leaflet collection of his tunes, probably from the late 19th c. Elsewhere it is set to Milton’s How lovely are thy dwellings fair, Barton’s Walk in the light, and Anne Steele’s Father of mercies, in thy word. Tilty [sic] Abbey Church, nr Great Dunmow in Essex, was well-known to the composer.

b Witley, nr Godalming, Surrey 1806, d Putney, Surrey (SW London) 1876. Corpus Christi Coll Oxford (BA 1827, then a Fellow). Ordained (CofE) 1831, to be curate of Witley before succeeding his father, John F Chandler, as its Vicar, thus remaining in the same parish all his life. In 1837 he published his significant pioneer work, Hymns of the Primitive Church, now first Collected, Translated, and Arranged: 108 hymns in Lat and English, most from the 1736 Paris Breviary, with additional items. In this he was a pioneer like Isaac Williams, whose example encouraged him some years before J M Neale’s work 30 miles to the west. A further collection appeared 4 years later, with a similar title but pruned and much revised. 30 such texts have been included in various edns of A&M, with 7 in the current one, Common Praise 2000. Julian observed that sometimes ‘doctrinal difficulties are either evaded or softened down’, but in this Chandler was hardly unique. He also compiled Horae Sacrae: Prayers and Meditations from the writings of the Divines of the Anglican Church (1844), as well as tracts, other books of prayers and in 1842 a biography of William of Wykeham (1324–1404). Nos.226, 316, 348.