Four streams through happy Eden flowed

Author: John Mason Neale

John M. Neale's life is a study in contrasts: born into an evangelical home, he had sympathies toward Rome; in perpetual ill health, he was incredibly productive; of scholarly tem­perament, he devoted much time to improving social conditions in his area; often ignored or despised by his contemporaries, he is lauded today for his contributions to the church and hymnody. Neale's gifts came to expression early–he won the Seatonian prize for religious poetry eleven times while a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, England. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1842, but ill health and his strong support of the Oxford Movement kept him from ordinary parish ministry. So Neale spent the years between 1846 and 1866 as a warden of Sackvi… Go to person page >

Four streams through happy Eden flowed. J. M. Neale. [St. Mark’s Day.] First published in the 3rd Series of his Hymns for Children, 1846, p. 21, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, the last being Bishop Ken's doxology. It is given in a few collections only. The idea upon which the hymn is based is that the four rivers of Eden were typical of the four Evangelists, and of these St. Mark was one.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)