Sweet Hour of Prayer

Text:

The author of this hymn is not known for certain. The text is often attributed to a man named W. W. Walford on the basis of an account in the New York Observer by Thomas Salmon in 1845, where the text was first published. This Walford was a blind, uneducated English preacher who had committed huge portions of the Bible to memory. Salmon would have met him between 1838 and 1842 while serving as pastor of a church in Coleshill, England. However, hymnologists have encountered problems in substantiating Walford's identity through church records, and some attribute the hymn to William Walford of Homerton, England, an educated Congregational minister, who was not blind. Traditionally, however, the hymn has been attributed to the blind preacher.

The theme of the text is the joy of spending time in communion with God through prayer. The text has four stanzas, though sometimes the second (“The joys I feel, the bliss I share”) or the fourth (“May I thy consolation share”) is omitted.

Tune:

William Bradbury composed SWEET HOUR for this text in 1861 and published it in his Golden Chain. The tune was named after the text and is the only tune to which this hymn is sung. The tempo should not drag, and the accompaniment should be soft.

When/Why/How:

This hymn may be used before pastoral or congregational prayer as a time of preparation, as a congregational hymn or an instrumental setting. A short and simple setting of “Sweet Hour of Prayer” is found in the “Easy Organ Library, Vol. 50.” Another easy version of “Sweet Hour of Prayer” is for handbells and optional handchimes and is suitable for children’s handbell choirs. It opens by “ringing the hour” like a clock chime. Another instrumental ensemble that fits the mood of “Sweet Hour of Prayer” is a string quartet; this arrangement offers the option of substituting a third violin for the viola part.

Tiffany Shomsky
Hymnary.org