From the first dawn of infant life. [ Charity School Sermon.] Anonymous, in Pratt's Collection, 1829, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, and in C.M. In a few hymnals, as in the American Presbyterian Selection of Hymns, Philadelphia, 1861, it is altered to S.M. and begins, "From earliest dawn of life."
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)
John B. Dykes (PHH 147) composed ST. AGNES for [Jesus the Very Thought of Thee]. Dykes named the tune after a young Roman Christian woman who was martyred in A.D. 304 during the reign of Diocletian. St. Agnes was sentenced to death for refusing to marry a nobleman to whom she said, "I am already eng…
Display Title: From the First DawnFirst Line: From the first dawn of infant lifeTune Title: [From the first dawn of infant life]Author: Anon.Date: 1884
Display Title: From the First DawnFirst Line: From the first dawn of infant lifeTune Title: [From the first dawn of infant life]Author: Anon.Date: 1880
Display Title: From the First DawnFirst Line: From the first dawn of infant lifeTune Title: [From the first dawn of infant life]Author: Anon.Date: 1886