Search me, O God, and know my heart today

Venturing, as it were, to break into a Wesley sequence with his simple ‘Scripture chorus’ from Psalm 139:23–24, is the work of a more recent evangelist, J Edwin Orr. This at least is how many Christians have learnt it, from CSSM/Scripture Union Choruses Bk 2, published in 1938. This book indicates, however, that it is the first stz of a full-scale hymn, to be distinguished from 834. The 4-stz text was written during an Easter conference at Ngaruwahia, New Zealand, in 1936, and published in All Your Need (London) in the same year. It currently appears in MP and in Pentecostal hymnals among other books. The final stz is characteristic of its author’s lifelong concern, ‘O Holy Ghost, revival comes from thee;/ send a revival, start the work in me …’.

The tune is normally given as MAORI MELODY, for which the words were written. The author heard it in NZ and identified it as an aboriginal folksong; it resembles some Hawaiian and other Polynesian melodies. It has also been set to the secular N American words from the 1940s, Now is the hour when we must say goodbye; the date 1913 has been attached. Pandina Lam’s arrangement was made for the present book.

b Belfast, N Ireland 1912, d Asheville, N Carolina, USA 1987. When just turned 21, he sailed from his native Ireland to begin what became a lifetime’s global evangelistic and teaching ministry. An early visit to New Zealand in 1936 prompted the hymn for which he is best known; 3 years later he was appointed Asst Pastor of The People’s Church in Toronto, Canada, being ordained in 1940 to the Baptist ministry in New Jersey, USA. He attended the Northwestern Univ (MA 1941) and the Northern Baptist Seminary (ThD 1943). He was a US Air Force chaplain in the SW Pacific 1942–46, followed by study at Oxford Univ (DPhil 1948). In 1967 after further travels he joined the faculty of the School of World Missions at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California. He became best known for his teaching on revival(s) and spiritual awakenings, historic and contemporary, continuing to write and speak widely on these themes. He was awarded honorary degrees in India and S Africa, and served on an international commission for the Baptist World Alliance. While leading a conference at the Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center in April 1987 he suffered a fatal heart attack. His writings include 6 hymns, including the one chosen here, set to a Maori folk-tune. No.829.