The Spirit came, as promised

Like 527, this hymn aims to be comprehensive but without the Wesleyan succinctness. James (Jim) Seddon wrote it as part of his share in the compilation of Psalm Praise, where it was first published in 1973 as ‘A Psalm for Whitsun’, based on references to the Holy Spirit in the Letter to the Ephesians. As there, the Trinitarian framework is clear: Ephesians 2:18, 3:16–17 etc, and lines 5–8 of the first two stzs of the hymn. It has found a place in several other collections. An early working draft from 1970 shared (as usual) with the PsP team was revised by JES at 1.1 (from ‘God’s Spirit …’), 1.8, and 3.7–8 (from ‘let not your speech deny him/ nor deeds your faith disclaim.’

In PsP, tunes by both Norman Warren and Christian Strover were set to these words. GH preferred TAL-Y-LLYN; and HTC, ELLACOMBE (861); Henry Smart’s LANCASHIRE chosen here is repeated at 618. Set elsewhere in the keys of D or E flat, it also accompanies a wide range of hymns in various books. It was composed for a missionary festival held on 4 Oct 1835 at Blackburn, Lancashire, to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the English Reformation. It was set then to From Greenland’s icy mountains. T Threlfall had a 77 77 tune of the same name in the 1904 A&M.

b Lancs 1915; d London 1983. Tyndale Hall, Bristol 1936; Univ of Durham (LTh 1939). Ordained in 1939, he was curate of parishes in Everton, Toxteth and Southport, Lancs 1939–45. From 1945 to 1955 he served with the Bible Churchmen’s Missionary Soc (BCMS, now Crosslinks) in Tangier and Demnat Marakesh, Morocco, becoming fluent in Arabic and French; here his first hymns were written for Arabicspeaking congregations. Then he returned to be Home Sec for BCMS to 1967; in preaching widely throughout UK, he felt increasingly the questionable features of the missionary hymns often chosen: ‘romantic and outdated language tending to unreal pictures and understanding of todays missionary task’—JES, 1983. So the first of several new texts were nos.616 and 866 in Praise! With 5 others, they appeared in a typewritten BCMS booklet A Collection of Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Some are included in Youth Praise (1966); Jim went on to serve on the editorial team for Psalm Praise, Keswick Praise and HTC (1973, 1975, 1982) and was for a time Sec (and senior member) of the fledgling Jubilate Hymns. 3 of his hymns feature in GH and 7 in the 2004 CH, overlapping with 7 in Praise! There are 8 in Keswick Praise and the same number in Baptist Praise and Worship (1991) and Sing Glory (1999). Until retirement he was Rector of Hawkwell, nr Southend, Essex 1967–74, then incumbent of the parishes of Peldon and Gt and Little Wigborough, nr Colchester, Essex. Nos.133A, 528, 568, 574, 616, 627, 866, 1043.