349. Great God of nations, now to Thee
Alfred A. Woodhull, 1810-36
Entitled “Thanksgiving Hymn,” this poem was written in 1828 when the author was only eighteen years old. It was published in the Presbyterian Psalms and Hymns, 1829, Princeton, N. J. There have been many alterations of the lines.
Alfred Alexander Woodhull, son of a Presbyterian minister, graduated from Princeton at 18 years of age, and then took a medical course at the University of Pennsylvania. He began the practice of medicine at Marietta, Pennsylvania, then moved to Princeton where within a year he contracted a fever which occasioned his death. Known as a fine Christian man as well as a skilled physician, his early death was greatly lamented. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church.
MUSIC. MENDON. For comments on this tune see [Hymn 211].