Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face. H. Bonar. [Holy Communion.] Dr. H. Bonar's elder brother, Dr. John James Bonar, St. Andrew's Free Church, Greenock, is wont after each Communion, to print a memorandum of the various services, and a suitable hymn. After the Communion on the first Sunday of October, 1855, he asked his brother, Dr. H. Bonar, to furnish a hymn, and in a day or two received this hymn (possibly composed before), and it was then printed, with the memorandum, for the first time. It was published in Hymns of Faith and Hope, first series, 1857, in 10 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed, "This do in remembrance of me." In addition to being in extensive use in its original, or in an abridged but unaltered form, it is also given as:—
1. Here would I, Lord, behold Thee face to face, in Psalms & Hymns, Bedford, 1859, he.
2. Here, Lord, by faith I see Thee face to face, in Hatfield's Church Hymn Book, N. Y., 1872, &c.
3. Here, 0 my Lord, I humbly seek Thy face, in T. Darling's Hymns, &c, 1887.
4. And now we rise, the symbols disappear. Composed of stanzas v. and x. in the American Baptist Service of Song, Boston, 1871.
5. I have no help but Thine, nor do I need, in the Leeds Sunday School Hymn Book edition 1858.
In literary merit, earnestness, pathos, and popularity, this hymn ranks with the best of Dr. Bonar's compositions. [Rev. John Brownlie]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Horatius Bonar was born at Edinburgh, in 1808. His education was obtained at the High School, and the University of his native city. He was ordained to the ministry, in 1837, and since then has been pastor at Kelso. In 1843, he joined the Free Church of Scotland. His reputation as a religious writer was first gained on the publication of the "Kelso Tracts," of which he was the author. He has also written many other prose works, some of which have had a very large circulation. Nor is he less favorably known as a religious poet and hymn-writer. The three series of "Hymns of Faith and Hope," have passed through several editions.
--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872… Go to person page >
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