This hymn on perfect peace is based on Isaiah 26:3: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.”
The origin of the hymn was furnished Dr. Julian by Rev. S. Bickersteth, a son of the author:
This hymn was written by Bishop Edward Henry Bickersteth while he was spending his summer holiday in Harrogate in the year 1875. On a Sunday morning in August the Vicar of Harrogate, Canon Gibbon, happened to preach from the text, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee,” and alluded to the fact that in the Hebrew the words are “peace, peace,” twice repeated and happily rendered in the 1611 translations by the phrase “perfect peace.” This sermon set my father’s mind working on the subject. He always found it easiest to express in verse whatever subject was uppermost in his mind, so that when on the afternoon of that Sunday he visited an aged and dying relative, Archdeacon Hill, of Liverpool, and found him somewhat troubled in mind, it was natural to him to express in verse the spiritual comfort which he desired to convey. Taking up a sheet of paper, he then and there wrote down the hymn just exactly as it now stands and read it to this dying Christian.
It is not always noticed that the first line in each verse is in the form of a question referring to some one or other of the disturbing experiences of life, and the second line in each verse endeavors to give the answer.... The hymn has been translated into many tongues, and for years I doubt if my father went many days without receiving from different people assurances of the comfort which the words had been allowed to bring to them. The most touching occasion on which, personally, I ever heard it sung was round the grave of my eldest brother, Bishop Edward Bickersteth, of South Tokyo, at Chiselden in 1897, when my father himself was chief mourner.
MUSIC. PAX TECUM was written for this hymn by George Thomas Caldbeck, 1852-?, concerning whose life one reads contradictory statements. Some writers say he was a missionary in China when he wrote this tune; others, including James Moffatt, give the account essentially as follows: that Caldbeck, while a student in London, was compelled through ill health to give up his purpose of becoming a missionary, went to Ireland to teach school and engage in independent missionary work. Later he returned to London where he did much open-air preaching, making a meagre living by selling Scripture text-cards from door to door. For selling without a license, he was arrested one day but dismissed by the judge on being informed that the defendant was the composer of this well-known hymn tune.
The tune was arranged by Charles John Vincent, born 1852, English organist, composer and editor of much church music.
257. God is the refuge of His saints
Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
Based on Psalm 46:1-5: “God is our refuge and our strength; a very present help in time of trouble,” etc., and was entitled by Watts, “The Church’s Safety and Triumph.” It is interesting to compare this free rendering of the Psalm with that of the Scotch Psalter, 1650, ([588]), where the thought of the psalm and the stately King James version combine to make up the greatest metrical form of the psalm. Martin Luther’s version of the same Psalm is found in his great hymn “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” ([549]).
For comments on Isaac Watts see [Hymn 11].
MUSIC. WARRINGTON was composed by Ralph Harrison, 1748-1810, an Englishman and son of a Presbyterian minister. Educated at Warrington Academy, he became a noted teacher of ancient languages, but maintained a keen interest in sacred music. He compiled Sacred Harmony, 2 vols., 1784-1791, a collection of psalm tunes, ancient and modern, in which were found some of his own compositions, including this tune.