My song is love unknown

‘… to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge’; ‘… who loved me and gave himself for me’; If Ephesians 3:19 and Galatians 2:20 suggested Samuel Crossman’s opening lines, what follows takes us through many of the events of our Lord’s passion in unforgettably selected detail. Past and present tenses are combined most vividly and with naturalness. But unlike some, the hymn stops short of describing the crucifixion itself, which for that very reason dominates the 7 stzs all the more powerfully. While every text is unique (or should be!) this has a special scope and savour, being held in affection by all who love Christ, crossing many church labels and denominations. It was one of 9 poems in a pamphlet from 1664, The Young Man’s Meditation, or some few Sacred Poems upon Select Subjects, and Scriptures (another being 970). This was two years after he had been ‘ejected’, like some 2000 other Puritan clergy, from his parish—a year before London’s plague, and around the time Milton was completing Paradise Lost. Crossman later ‘conformed’; these words may not have been sung, except perhaps privately, in his lifetime. After a reprint in 1863, 199 years on, the 1868 Anglican Hymn Book included it as a hymn, and John Ireland’s tune ensured its great popularity in the 20th c. J R Watson says that it looks back to George Herbert and forward to Isaac Watts; see further, pp86–90 of The English Hymn.

Margaret Clarkson greatly valued the hymn and opposed most alterations, but even she drew the line at 5.5–6, ‘Yet cheerful he/ to suffering goes’. Whatever adjective fits Jesus in Gethsemane, ‘cheerful’ is as inappropriate here as it is welcome in 300; other books have now adopted the change to ‘steadfast’ (cf Luke 9:51) made here. So other changes prove necessary, made as gently as possible and some adopted from HTC. Stzs 1 and 6 are unchanged; 2.1 had ‘his blest throne’ and 2.3 ‘men made strange’; 3.1 was ‘strow his way’; stz 4 (sadly missing from CH, GH, and PHRW) concluded ‘Sweet injuries!/ yet they at these/ themselves displease/ and ’gainst him rise’. Stz 5 began and ended, ‘They rise and needs will have … that he his foes from thence might free’; lines 2 and 4 of the final stz were ‘no story so divine … never was grief like thine’. But the central thoughts remain, from their incarnational perspective to their gospel cameos, all encompassed by ‘song/love’ at the beginning, and ‘sing/love’ to conclude.

In 1868 the hymn was re-launched with (Henry) LAWES PSALM 47; though sometimes sung to ST JOHN (710), it has its meaning brought out most clearly by John Ireland’s LOVE UNKNOWN. This was composed for the 1919 Public School Hymn Book, at the request of its editor Geoffrey Shaw over lunch; written on a scrap of paper (or their menu card) in 15 minutes, according to Donald Ford’s letter in The Times of 5 April 1950. It is no criticism of the richly distinctive text to add that without this tune the hymn would hardly occupy the popular position it currently holds.

b Bradfield Monarchorum, Suffolk c1624, d Bristol, 1683/4. After study at Pembroke Coll Cambridge (BD) he became vicar of All Saints’ Sudbury, Suffolk, which was in effect a Congregational or Independent puritan church. He was appointed a ‘messenger’ to the Savoy Conference of 1658, and 1662 was one of the ejected clergy who would not conform to the new Prayer Book and canons. However, a change of heart led him in 1665 to be ordained by a bishop, even becoming one of the king’s chaplains. In 1667 he became a Prebendary of Bristol and Vicar of St Nicholas’ ch; in 1682 he was chosen to be the cathedral’s treasurer, but his key appointment as Dean in 1683 was cut short by his death a few months later at the age of 59. Some of his more notable sermons, preached in Bristol and London, were printed. His verse was published in 1664 as The Young Man’s Meditation; or Some few Sacred Poems on Select Subjects, and Scriptures; headed by lines from Philo and G Herbert. Among these 9 items are an eloquent text ‘Upon the Fifth of November’ and two which have become favourite hymns among Free and Anglican churches. They have sometimes been printed (keeping the best till last?) together with the texts of John Ryland and Clare Taylor, SC followed the 1664 book with The Young Man’s Monitor. Nos.403, 970.