Lord, Teach Us How to Pray Aright

Author: James Montgomery

Lord, teach us how to pray aright. J. Montgomery. [Praye.] Written in 1818, and first printed on a broadsheet with Montgomery's "Prayer is the soul's sincere desire;“ “What shall we ask of God in prayer?" and "Thou, God, art a consuming fire ;" for use in the Nonconformist Sunday Schools in Shef¬field. In Cotterill's Selection, 8th ed., 1819, No. 280, it was repeated in full in 4 stanzas of 8 lines, and headed, "The preparations of the heart in man." During the same year it was given, with alterations and the omission of stanza ii., in E. Bickersteth's Treatise on Prayer. In Montgomery's Christian Psalmist, 1825, No. 482, the text in Bickersteth was repeated, with the restoration of stanza ii., and divided into 8 stanzas of 4 lines The text in his Original Hymns, 1853, No. 65, is that of the Christian Psalter, 1825, with the change of stanza iv., lines. 1, 2, from:—

"God of all Grace, we come to Thee
With broken, contrite hearts";
to:—
"God of all grace, we bring to Thee
A broken, contrite heart."

This change is set down in the margin of Montgomery's private copy of the Christian Psalmist in his own handwriting. This hymn, in full or abridged, is in numerous collections. The variations of text which are found have arisen in a great measure from some editors copying from Cotterill's Selection of 1819, and others from the Christian Psalmist of 1825. The first is the original, and the second (with the above correction in Original Hymns 1853) is the authorized text. In some American Unitarian collections, including A Book of Hymns, 1848; and the Hymn [and Tune] Book for the Church and the Home, &c, 1868, a hymn beginning, "God of all grace, we come to Thee," is given from this, and opens with stanza iv.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), p.980