O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness

With or without the ‘O’ (which the author began with but later removed), the 1st line of this hymn is taken directly from 3 Bible texts; in Coverdale’s 1535 version it comes in Psalm 29 and Psalm 96, and in the 1611 AV also in 1 Chronicles 16, which repeats Psalm 96. If that phrase lends itself to poetic extension in the form of a hymn, the text still had to be written; that task was performed by John S B Monsell in 1861 in verses published in his 1863 Hymns of Love and Praise for the Church’s Year, and headed ‘1 Chronicles 16:29’. The reference to gold and incense were intended to fit them for the Epiphany celebration of the coming of the wise men. The original 2nd and 4th lines of stzs 2 and 3 read respectively: ‘High on his heart he will bear it for thee … Guiding thy steps as may best for thee be’, and ‘Of the poor wealth thou wouldst reckon as thine … These are the offerings to lay on his shrine’. Clearly some things are gained and some lost by the modernisations, the second of which is adopted from HTC. The repetition of the 1st stz as the final one is not original, but now widely accepted (as with some other hymns) as providing a more satisfying conclusion. It seems churlish to have to add that the beauty of the opening line may have been purchased at the price of accuracy; Tyndale (1530s) has ‘Bow to the Lord in holy apparel’ and most fresh Bible translations revert to his example rather than following Coverdale’s. J R Watson even says that Monsell ‘locked himself in’ to this metre following a marvellous first line.

The words were first set to the tune WAS LEBET (WAS SCHWEBET) in EH; but the melody goes back to a 1754 German ‘Choral-buch’ known as the ‘Rheinhardt ms’, published at Üttingen near Frankfurt. The original words give the tune its name, though the music may have earlier roots in German folksong.

b St Columb’s, Co Derry, Ireland 1811, d Guildford, Surrey 1875. Trinity Coll Dublin (BA 1832, LLD 1836); ordained (Ch of Ireland) 1834, becoming chaplain to Bp Mant (No.193), then Chancellor of the diocese of Connor and Rector of Ramoan. His Hymns and Miscellaneous Poems were published in 1837, and Parish Musings, or Devotional Poems, 1850. He came to England in 1853 as a Surrey incumbent, at Egham from 1853 to 1870, then at Guildford. 9 further books of verse and some prose followed between 1857 and 1873; including The Beatitudes, Our New Vicar, and Spiritual Songs for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year (1867), arranged according to the church calendar, but where congregational hymns still merge with more meditative and sermonic poems and versified narrative. The 91 texts in this work are thoughtful, Scripture-based though touched by ritual; one for the 17th Sunday after Trinity powerfully celebrates the Christian Sabbath. The verse-forms range from actual limerick to stzs modelled on Geo Herbert. The author says they were written ‘among the orange and olive groves of Italy during a winter spent (for the sake of health) upon the shores of the Mediterranean Sea’. In all he wrote nearly 300 hymns, 5 of which appeared in The Public School Hymn Book in 1919. Julian’s characteristic verdict is that they ‘are as a whole bright, joyous and musical; but they lack massiveness, concentration of thought, and strong emotion’. Ellerton found his ‘warm and loving devoutness so often counter-balanced by his incorrectness’. During the rebuilding of St Nicholas’ Guildford he either fell from the roof he was inspecting, or was hit by falling masonry, and died shortly afterwards. His final poem was ‘Near home at last’; but Fight the good fight has passed in to the common currency of speech among many who know little more of the hymn and nothing of its biblical origins. Nos.194, 455, 651, 883.