For further comments on this hymn see [No. 304].
MUSIC. RENDEZ À DIEU was composed or adapted by L. Bourgeois for the French Genevan Psalter, where it was set to Psalm 118. In the Scottish Psalter of 1564, the tune was again used to John Craig’s version of the same Psalm. It is described in Songs of Praise Discussed as being “in some ways the finest of all the early psalm tunes ... perfectly proportioned ... a tune which gives the true ‘spinal thrill’; of its kind it is unsurpassed.”
For comments on L. Bourgeois see [Hymn 34].
307. Come, risen Lord, and deign to be our guest
George W. Briggs, 1875—
Based on the account of the supper at Emmaus, Luke 24:28-31:
And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
It stresses the doctrine that Christ Himself is the celebrant at the Lord’s Supper.
George Wallace Briggs is a Cambridge scholar, an outstanding preacher, educator, writer, and editor in the Anglican church. He has composed a number of hymns (See [570]) and hymn tunes.
MUSIC. BIRMINGHAM is from F. Cunningham’s A Selection of Psalm Tunes, 2d ed., 1834, where it is set to the words, “Come, gracious Spirit, heavenly dove.” Cunningham published an earlier collection of psalm tunes in 1826.