Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me

‘This chorus was written and composed in February, 1926, by Rev. Daniel Iverson’; ascriptions to collected songs seldom come as specifically as this. But that footnote, presumably for good reason, accompanies its appearance in Elim Choruses No.2, a booklet also featuring Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the word and Travel by the sunshine line. The author wrote it after an address on the Holy Spirit at a mission at Orlando, Florida, where it made an immediate impact. Arriving in England via Elim churches, like others from this source it found its way into CSSM/Scripture Union Choruses, and Bk 2 of this later collection (1938) simply has ‘Slowly with expression: Arr. by W G Hathaway. From Elim Choruses, by permission.’ The 18 Elim booklets were first published in one volume in 1966, compiled by Hathaway. It is these two series, followed in 1966 by Youth Praise, which helped to keep the song alive in Britain through the mid-20th c—or perhaps to back up a more informal oral tradition in which it held a small but special place. From here it was taken into larger hymnals such as HTC, Baptist Praise and Worship, and Rejoice and Sing. As originally printed the repeated line was ‘… fall fresh on me’, a version changed by CSSM/SU and most other books, with consequent musical emendation, but restored in BPW. Like 487, this is a model song in its simplicity and within its limits. Its opening and controlling phrase is from 2 Corinthians 3:3, which also provided the starting-point for 544; its scheme is aaba, with the repeated prayer varied by the searching, slower and personal petitions of 1 3. Above all, and again like He is Lord, it needs no further repetition or embellishment such as has sometimes been thrust upon it; beware imitations! The tune, known here as IVERSON from its composer, perfectly matches the words in tension, climax and resolution.

b Brunswick, Georgia, USA 1890, d Asheville, N Carolina, USA 1977. Moody Bible Institute (Chicago), the Univ of Georgia, Columbia Theol Seminary and the Univ of S Carolina. He served as a Presbyterian minister in Lumberton, N Carolina, and then became the organising minister of Shenandoah Presbyterian Ch in Miami, Florida, from 1927 to 1951 when he took formal retirement. He also ministered to congregations in Georgia and S Carolina, and in 1962 he moved to Asheville and continued to preach until his death at the age of 86. His bestknown song, often sung spontaneously and by heart, was once seen as a badge of evangelical spirituality, but has now almost uniquely (in view of its 1920s origins) crossed most boundaries to be very generally appreciated. No.539.