139. Spirit divine, attend our prayer
Andrew Reed, 1787-1862
Samuel Longfellow, 1819-92
This is a revision by Samuel Longfellow of a hymn written by Andrew Reed, an English Congregational minister. Reed, a philanthropist and great organizer, and founder of six asylums and orphanages, wrote 21 hymns and published several hymn books. He was an ardent supporter of missionary work at home and abroad. Writing to his son who suggested that the father should write his autobiography, Dr. Reed summed up his own life in these words:
I was born yesterday, I shall die tomorrow, and I must not spend today in telling what I have done, but in doing what I may for HIM who has done all for me. I sprang from the people, I have lived for the people—the most for the most unhappy; and the people when they know it will not suffer me to die out of loving remembrance.
MUSIC. BRECON. The origin of this tune has not been traced. It is a useful tune as a choir response after the prayer.