We were not there to see you come

John Hampden Gurney’s hymn tackles head on the 2000-year gap between the events we sing about, and the singing. Hymns like 403 use a quite different method; this one declares almost defiantly at each 5th line, ‘But we believe …’ This phrase, the basic structure, and the idea behind the opening words he owed to an earlier hymn by Anne Richter (formerly Rigby, also given as ‘Anne R Kirton-Lindsey’), We have not seen thy footsteps tread, which appeared in Songs of the Valley in 1834. But this was itself based on a yet earlier American poem. Gurney’s own work, written in 1838 for his first hymn collection and further revised in 1851 as We saw thee not when thou didst come, has in turn been considerably adapted. In 1851 it was included in Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship, selected for some of the Churches in Marylebone—the central London neighbourhood where he was rector of the parish of St Mary’s. It has a clear reference to John 20:29, but except for the ‘lifted high’ (John 3:14 etc), the events described are most clearly seen in Luke. In particular, the main focus is on Luke 2, 4–5, and 23–24; the teaching and healing of stz 2 are found through all four Gospels, and the end of stz 3 reflects Matthew 27 and Mark 15.

Songs of Praise in 1931 offered in effect a new hymn using the same structure and ideas: ‘The editor [Percy Dearmer] was bidden to begin again’, and wrote We saw thee not when, far away. Others have preferred to stay closer to Gurney, such as the HTC revision in 5 stzs, omitting the 2nd and ascribed to ‘Ann[e] Richter and others’, which was drafted by Michael Perry and is used as the basis for this one. Changes are made from ‘thy cottage home’ and ‘that despisèd Nazareth’ (1.3–4); ‘amid that wild and savage crew’ (3.2); ‘where late thy sacred body lay’ and ‘nor met thee in the open way’ (4.4). Of the stzs drafted for Praise!, the 2nd formerly began ‘We saw thee not upon the wave/ when thou the stormy sea didst bind …’; 5, ‘We did not mark the chosen few/ when thou didst through the clouds ascend,/ first lift to heaven their wondering view,/ then to the earth all prostrate bend …’; and 6, ‘And now that thou dost reign on high,/ and thence thy waiting people bless,/ no ray of glory from the sky/ doth shine upon our wilderness …’ PHRW has a different text for stzs 3 and 6.

John Stainer’s CREDO (‘I believe’) was written for this text and contributed to the 1875 A&M, which however did not persevere with either after its 1916 edition. ST CATHERINE (921) has also been used, as in GH and other books; so has A S Warrell’s FARMBOROUGH.

GURNEY, John Hampden, b Serjeants’ Inn, off Fleet St, London 1802, d St Marylebone, Middlesex (London) 1862. Trinity Coll Cambridge (BA 1824); abandoned law studies in order to be ordained (CofE) 1827. After a curacy at Lutterworth, Leics (a parish made famous by John Wyclif), he became Rector of St Mary’s Bryanston Sq (Marylebone), nr Marble Arch in central London; later, a Prebendary of St Paul’s Cathedral. He was active in support of the Religious Tract Soc and SPCK; the author of several historical works and at least three collections of hymns for the parishes he served, with essays on hymnody and psalmody. One, published in 1851 with 300 hymns, became known as The Marylebone Collection. He wrote 17 original texts, one of which (with variations) has proved of lasting value. Nos.202*, 406.