O for a closer walk with God

‘And Enoch walked with God …’; so indeed did Noah (Genesis 5:24, 6:9). From such starting-points, here is the first of two classic 18th-c hymns of aspiration and longing; each with its uniquely memorable lines and stzs but neither without its problems. First, William Cowper; and although it had been in print earlier, this text is the first we meet from him in the Olney Hymns of 1779. Following the items by John Newton on Adam, then on Cain and Abel, this is no.3; there is nothing to approach it for some pages to come—Amazing grace being 41. It had been written on 9 Dec 1769 and sent in a letter to Cowper’s aunt the next day. The writer explains his deeply anxious distress at Mrs Mary Unwin’s illness, and adds, ‘I began to compose the verses yesterday morning, before daybreak, but fell asleep at the end of the first two lines [does he mean stanzas?]; when I awaked again, the third and fourth were whispered to my heart in a way which I have often experienced.’ Richard Conyers published his friend’s 6-verse poem in his 1772 Collection of Psalms and Hymns; Toplady chose it in 1776, also for Psalms and Hymns.

Reading or singing it we soon forget Enoch, since the author’s concern is with God and ‘the Lamb’, with ‘Jesus and his word.’ Cowper is notoriously hard to emend without inflicting damage, but changes are made here at 1.2 (from ‘a calm and heavenly frame’); 2.1 (‘… the blessedness’); 4.2,4 (the hardest, from ‘whate’er that idol be/ … only thee’); and 5.2 (matching stz 1, ‘calm and serene my frame’). It is all highly personal; most Christians can identify with stz 2, though the cause of one’s loss of joy is not necessarily idolatry (stz 4). Stz 3 is even sharper and more specific; the author’s particular nostalgia echoes Job 29:1–4, but this may not be our healthiest or most useful model. The original follows with a stz using imagery from Genesis 8:8–12 but linking Noah’s dove with the Holy Spirit of Matthew 3:16 etc: ‘Return, O holy Dove, return,/ sweet messenger of rest;/ I hate the sins that made thee mourn,/ and drove thee from my breast.’ This is omitted from Praise! (as from GH, HTC and others) to avoid the suggestion that when we sin we lose the Holy Spirit altogether, as opposed to grieving him, and have to plead for his ‘return’. By contrast, succeeding editions of A&M retain this stz but drop the 2nd. The Jubilate/HTC revision is more radical; other hymnals, less prepared to ‘tamper’ with a major poet’s work or presume to improve it, omit the hymn. But so much in it is good, not least its welcome note of ‘calm’, that it is hard to relinquish it altogether. ‘Hesitating and wistful’ it may be (so Routley); it also puts into words the struggling thoughts of many believers, now as then.

The tune can also direct the mood. Isaac Smith’s ABRIDGE is shared, in different keys, with the next item. It is only marginally younger than these words, and was set to an Isaac Watts Psalm version (part of Psalm 47) in Smith’s ,A Collection of Psalm Tunes in Three Parts, c1770–80. The 1951 Congregational Praise used it for three hymns, including Newton’s 607 but not this one, to which CAITHNESS is assigned as elsewhere. Abridge is a village in the parish of Lambourne, Essex, on the edge of Epping Forest but now overshadowed by motorways. Legend has it that the tune was composed in its old Blue Boar inn. Other musical possibilities include MARTYRDOM and STRACATHRO (14, 343).

(pronounced ‘Cooper’), b Great Berkhamsted, Herts 1731, d East Dereham, Norfolk 1800. Permanently affected by the loss of his mother in childhood, at 6 he was sent to boarding sch at nearby Markyate, then to Westminster Sch. Although he was bullied, he enjoyed most kinds of sport and his gift for comic verse appeared early—always gentle rather than savage. Articled to an attorney, he was called to the bar in 1754 but never practised in the legal profession. He was recommended for the post of Clerk to the Journals of the House of Lords, but suffered panic attacks at the thought of being publicly examined, acute shyness merging into despair and leading to his first attempt at suicide. A possible marriage to cousin Theodora was vetoed by her family; she remained single but fond of him, and almost certainly helped him with anonymous financial gifts for many years. Support in other ways came from his brother John, later to be ordained, and the hymnwriter and editor Martin Madan. He found respite in an asylum (‘Collegium Insanorum’) at St Albans run by the evangelical Dr Nathanael Cotton ( 1707–88, the same dates as C Wesley, some of whose own hymns might easily speak for Cowper). During his time there (in 1764) he readily testified to gaining a clear view of God’s grace from Rom 3:25; he then moved to Huntingdon to settle with Morley and Mary Unwin and their teenage children at the vicarage. But in 1767 Morley, the vicar, died from the severe injuries sustained when he was thrown from his horse. The household found a congenial evangelical friend in John Newton (qv) and moved to Olney to become his neighbours and parishioners, coming to value his preaching, his warm friendship and eventually an unlikely writing partnership.

William became affectionately known in the village as ‘Sir Cowper’, a lover of the still rural scenery and of ‘all creatures, great and small’ including the tame hares which had the run of his house. In 1773 he had a further breakdown; Newton planned what became the Olney Hymns as a means of praising God, teaching his growing midweek congregation, and also of lifting his friend from depression by a practical project well within his great abilities and close to his heart. Cowper’s contributions, many of which have featured in major hymn-collections ever since, come mainly in the early sections and are marked ‘C’. These were published in 1779; soon after which (1782, 1785) his two main volumes of poems including satires appeared, which confirmed his position in the literary world. After Newton was appointed to his London living in 1780, Cowper, Mrs Unwin and remaining household moved a mile of so to Weston Underwood, At one point William and Mary seemed set for marriage but again the poet’s nerves failed him, and while she had cared for him, in her own final illness the roles were reversed. His poem ‘To Mary’ is a poignant memorial of that warm but interrupted friendship. But Cowper would soon need further support, which after her death in 1796 he found notably in (the Rev) John Johnson; Cowper’s last 4 years were spent at East Dereham, Norfolk, in whose parish ch are some notable memorials. Sadly, gloom descended on his mind for some time before the end.

But his legacy, sacred and secular, remains; he is one of a small handful of major poets to feature in hymn-books, and of an even smaller group of those who set out to write hymns. Among the less-known are some translations, not published till 1801, from the French of the ‘quietist’ Madame Guyon (1648–1717). Although many of his hymns are deeply personal, several remain as standard hymns in mainstream books: The 1965 Anglican Hymn Book has 9 and Common Worship (2000) 5, while CH 2004 includes 10. He declined the post of Poet Laureate, but his long poem in 6 books The Task (1785), beginning ‘I sing the sofa…’, enjoyed great success; its lines on the evangelical preacher (‘I say the pulpit…Must stand acknowledged, while the world shall stand’) are almost unique in serious literature, in celebrating such a ministry without caricature, ridicule or contempt. He translated from Lat and Gk (but not hymns); among his lighter verse John Gilpin (1782) has remained a favourite and even Bernard Shaw loved it. Cowper also wrote eloquently against the slave trade, in support of Wilberforce, and (from experience) against public schools. His spiritual struggles have been compared with those of the youthful Bunyan (whose The Pilgrim’s Progress sometimes finds an echo in Cowper’s hymns), and his ‘pre-romantic’ verse to that of James Thompson and Wordsworth. He finds a place in virtually all representative collections of English verse; the 1972 ‘New Oxford’ book typically features 6 items including his most quoted hymn (256) and the despairing but still finely-written ‘The castaway’, ‘Obscurest night involved the sky’. These are 2 of the more meagre 3 items in its 1999 successor. Among the many studies of the man and his work, the more reliable ones are by those who share or at least understand his faith, including major work by George M Ella (William Cowper: Poet of Paradise, 1993) and more briefly by Elsie Houghton (1982), Faith Cook (2005), and the Day One ‘Travel Guide’ by Paul Williams (2007). The popular durability of Cowper’s verse has again been demonstrated in the 21st century in public recitals by the ‘poetry performer’ Lance Pierson; see also under G Herbert. The former Olney vicarage now houses the Newton and Cowper Museum. Nos.256, 444, 562, 609, 615, 680, 811, 876.