Marcus M. Wells, 1815-95
The hymn and tune were written by Marcus M. Wells, a farmer and maker of farm implements who lived all his life in New York State. Born at Otsego, N. Y., he was converted in a mission at Buffalo. Regarding the origin of the hymn and tune he wrote:
On a Saturday afternoon, Oct. 1858, while at work in my cornfield, the sentiment of the hymn came to me. The next day, Sunday, being a very stormy day, I finished the hymn and wrote a tune for it and sent it to Prof. I. B. Woodbury.
The hymn sets forth God as a Presence, near the Christian’s side, friendly and helpful and true, guiding him through the storms and floods and desert wastes of his pilgrimage from earth to his heavenly home. It was first published in the New York Musical Pioneer, edited by Isaac B. Woodbury.
138. Our blest Redeemer, ere He breathed
Harriet Auber, 1773-1862
One of the finest of our hymns on the Holy Spirit. It was written for Whitsunday and published in the author’s The Spirit of the Psalms, 1829, in seven stanzas, the second and third being omitted here. The hymn appears in most modern hymnals and has been translated into several languages.
Harriet Auber, whose grandfather went from Normandy to England in 1685 as a Huguenot refugee, was born in London. She was a woman of refinement and culture who spent most of her life in the quiet villages of Broxbourne and Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. She wrote numerous poems and hymns, but her name survives as the author of this exquisite lyric.
MUSIC. ST. CUTHBERT was composed for these words by J. B. Dykes for the original edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1861.
For comments on Dykes see [Hymn 1].