Spirit of God, that moved of old

Author: Cecil Frances Alexander

As a small girl, Cecil Frances Humphries (b. Redcross, County Wicklow, Ireland, 1818; Londonderry, Ireland, 1895) wrote poetry in her school's journal. In 1850 she married Rev. William Alexander, who later became the Anglican primate (chief bishop) of Ireland. She showed her concern for disadvantaged people by traveling many miles each day to visit the sick and the poor, providing food, warm clothes, and medical supplies. She and her sister also founded a school for the deaf. Alexander was strongly influenced by the Oxford Movement and by John Keble's Christian Year. Her first book of poetry, Verses for Seasons, was a "Christian Year" for children. She wrote hymns based on the Apostles' Creed, baptism, the Lord's Supper, the Ten Commandment… Go to person page >

Spirit of God, that moved of old. Cecil F. Alexander, née Humphreys. [Whitsuntide.] Appeared in the Society for Promoting Christian KnowledgeHymns, 1852, No. 70, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines. In Mrs. Alexander's Hymns Descriptive and Devotional, 1858, No. 15, it was republished in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, the new stanza, the third, being "Unseal the well within our hearts." The 1852 text is that usually given in modern hymnbooks. In Dr. Martineau's Hymns, &c, 1873. No. 95 is an altered form of stanzas ii.-iv. of the 1852 text, and begins, "Thou Power and Peace! in Whom we find."

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)