Now to the King eternal

Of this doxology based on 1 Timothy 1:17, the author/composer writes that the words and music ‘overtook me one afternoon in c1989’. One afternoon in c1998, Peter Ninnis also sang and played them to the relevant group assessing new material, and they were welcomed then and at the next editorial board meeting. Lines 5–8 in the song relate this mercy and glory to the Holy Trinity, reflecting such texts as 1 Peter 1:2–3. In his first ‘pastoral epistle’, the apostle Paul has just written ‘that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief’ (1Timothy 1:15). Writing in 1957, William Hendriksen comments that v17 ‘is all the more exuberant because … the attention is riveted on Christ’s incomprehensible longsuffering exhibited not only to one sinner but to an entire procession of sinners whom Christ came to save.’ A little earlier, E K Simpson wrote, ‘Who cannot trace Paul’s hand here? Peter twice inserts doxologies midway in his discourse, but the practice belongs distinctively to the apostle of the Gentiles, and well does it tally with his spirit of fervent adoration’. The tune is named NOW TO THE KING; it was arranged for this book by Margaret Ellis, and like the text it is first published here. But NB: this item suffered some dislocation of words and music when first printed; the original and authentic version may be obtained from its author, or from the compiler of Exploring Praise.

b Croydon, Surrey 1948. He was raised in ‘a chapel-going but not overtly Christian’ family. Trinity Sch of John Whitgift, Croydon; followed by training for the horticultural industry (Advanced Nat Cert in horticulture). Converted in a small Gospel Standard chapel at Grove, Oxfordshire, he then trained for Christian ministry at the S Wales Bible Coll, and from 1983 served full-time in a Reformed Baptist Ch in Watford, Herts. In 1996 he moved to the Grace Baptist Ch at Basildon, Essex, and after a short break to Truro Evangelical Ch, Cornwall (FIEC), in 2001. His hymnwriting began in 1988 with no.543 and ‘has continued in gentle fashion ever since’—PJN. He has texts and tunes in print, all for the first time in Praise!; others are arriving. Nos.144, 149, 186, 188, 543, 1143, 1198. 1143*, 1198*