Now to him whose power is able

‘Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory …’; the final enlarged doxology which closes the Bible’s penultimate book (Jude 24–25, here in the NKJV) has been specially valued by readers, preachers, and worship leaders for nearly 2000 years. It is one conclusion provided for some forms of funeral service, appropriate for such solemn occasions while in no way limited to them. When the Scripture writers provide such powerful material for our meditation and prayer, it has been natural for believers to wish both to pray and to sing them; for English-speakers at least, the latter requires a metrical version. Nick Needham offers one for the words of Jude (as he does for Hebrews at 802) and for present-day Christians, in these lines published here for the first time. The author says they were not prompted by any special circumstance; this item, written in the 1990s, is the last of his 5 contributions accepted for Praise!

The tune ST HELEN requires a text worthy of it. To those accustomed to singing it with George H Bourne’s 1874 Communion hymn Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour (to which it was set in the 1889 Supplement to A&M), a mere 2 stzs as here may seem meagre; at least we can learn to value the music along with the words. It has also been set to 552 and earlier to 103B; there is no reason why Anglicans should have all the best tunes. This one was named by George C Martin, its composer, who specified that it should be sung ‘majestically’. the historic Helen or Helena (c255–330) was the mother of Constantine, but no special association with the music is known; Valerie Ruddle says it ‘may refer to St Helen’s Bishopsgate, not far from where George Martin spent most of his working life.’ The tune ST HELENS (148) is quite different, and named for different reasons.

b London 1959. Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar Sch; he was converted in 1976, and a year later read Augustine’s Confessions, which proved a life-changing experience. Edinburgh Univ 1978–87 (BD, PhD) including time at New College as student and as a teacher on Zwingli; he became the first Librarian of Edinburgh’s Rutherford House theological research centre. He taught Systematic Theology at the Scottish Baptist Coll in Glasgow for some years before moving back to N London as an Asst Baptist Pastor. From there he returned to Scotland to lecture at the Highland Theological College, Dingwall nr Inverness, and was called to pastor the Inverness Reformed Baptist Ch. He has also taught more briefly in Africa and served as an occasional consultant for Praise! His first two books were on Scottish church history; others include Thomas Erskine of Linlathen (his PhD subject, 1989), The Doctrine of the Holy Scripture in the Free Church Fathers (1990) and books on general church history, Christian experience and prayer. His major 5-volume historical work, 2000 Years of Christ’s Power, was published between 1998 and 2006. The texts in Praise! were written in London from 1995 onwards; 2 of them appear also in the 2004 edn of CH. (An earlier hymn-writing Needham was the 18th-c Baptist minister John N who also adapted the hymns of others, with a brief biography and 14 texts noted in Julian.) Nos.185, 293, 638, 802, 900.