Loving Shepherd of your sheep

The figure of the Good Shepherd is naturally related to the theme of perseverance, largely though not solely because of John 10:28–29, as eg in 894 and 898. In Jane Leeson’s hymn it takes the foreground. This was published in her Hymns and Scenes of Childhood in 1842, and in its original form, retained in most hymnals, it is clearly a children’s hymn: ‘… keep thy lamb, in safety keep … / Teach thy lamb thy voice to hear’ (1.2, 4.2). Praise! follows the example of CH and GH in aiming to make this singable by adults, though each book does so with its own alterations. The use made of Mrs Alexander’s hymns (eg 372 and 437) gives some precedent, but the two quoted lines are not the only ones here which the author wrote with children in mind. Other changes are made from ‘pluck’ (1.4); ‘Loving Saviour, thou didst give’ (2.1); ‘I would … / … all your will obey’ (3.1–2); ‘suffer not my steps to …’ (4.3).

The perfectly-matched tune BUCKLAND was composed by Leighton G Hayne, and was published in The Merton Tune-Book, a collection of hymn-tunes used in the Church of St John the Baptist, Oxford, edited by him and H W Sargent in 1863. Among other hymns to use it are S Longfellow’s Holy Spirit, truth divine, from 1887. The composer spent many years in and around Oxford, and the Buckland named here is an Oxfordshire village between Wantage and Witney.

b London 1809, d Leamington, Warwicks 1881 (Julian New Suppt gave 1807–1882). She lived in London and is known for writing several books of hymns, mainly for children. At some point she left the Catholic Apostolic [Irvingite] Church, whose 1864 hymn-book featured 5 of her hymns and 4 translations, and embraced Roman Catholicism. Her books between 1842 and 1853 include Infant Hymnings, Hymns and Scenes of Childhood, The Child’s Book of Ballads, Songs of Christian Chivalry, and Paraphrases and Hymns for Congregational Singing. Some of her verse was translated from Lat; she acknowledged the help of ‘a friend’ for ‘the best of the poems’, but claimed some other writings as direct promptings or ‘prophetic utterances’ from the Holy Spirit. No.902.