354. Father eternal, Ruler of creation
Laurence Housman, 1865—
One of the hymns of our time in which, characteristically, the international note is struck. It was written at the request of the Rev. H. R. L. (Dick) Sheppard, minister of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, London, for the Life and Liberty movement after World War I. The bitter experiences of that war, with the subsequent fear and distrust among the nations, had intensified the longing for the realization of the petition in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” This hymn gives utterance to that longing.
Laurence Housman is an English artist known chiefly for his book illustrations, but he is also known as a writer of poetry and prose of merit. A contemporary wrote of him: “He has the heart of compassion for the little ones of the earth, the dumb and the helpless, that ought to be, but is not always, an essential part of poetry. His is the true Franciscan spirit.”
MUSIC. OLD 124TH is from the Genevan Psalter, 1551, where it is set to Psalm 124. It is commonly attributed to L. Bourgeois (See [34]). The tune has always been popular in England with the non-conformist churches and is one of the few surviving tunes from the Old Version Psalter.
355. Not alone for mighty empire
William Pierson Merrill, 1867—
A hymn of thanksgiving and of the higher patriotism, glorying not in empire nor in battleship and fortress but in the things of the spirit which have made America great. It was first printed in The Continent, a Presbyterian paper, now defunct, published in Chicago.
Concerning the origin of the hymn, Dr. Merrill wrote in a letter dated April 18, 1947:
The occasion for the writing of this hymn was a Union Thanksgiving Service in Chicago, where Jenkin Lloyd Jones made a prayer, in which he thanked God more for spiritual values in our national life than for any temporal ones. That prayer inspired my hymn.