This morning's processional hymn at Christ Church Cathedral, Whitehorse. (Hymn #474 in the Anglican Church of Canada's hymn book, Common Praise.)

Jesus, where'er thy people meet,
there they behold thy mercy seat;
where'er they seek thee thou art found,
and every place is hallowed ground.

For thou, within no walls confined,
dost dwell with those of humble mind;
such ever bring thee where they come,
and, going, take thee to their home.

Great Shepherd of thy chosen few,
thy former mercies here renew;
here, to our waiting hearts, proclaim
the sweetness of thy saving Name.

Here may we prove the power of prayer
to strengthen faith and sweeten care;
to teach our faint desires to rise,
and bring all heaven before our eyes.

Lord, we are few, but thou art near;
nor short thine arm, nor deaf thine ear;
O rend the heavens, come quickly down,
and make a thousand hearts thine own!

Words: William Cowper, 1769.
Music: Wareham, William Knapp, 1738.

English poet and hymn writer William Cowper (pronounced “Kooper”) suffered most of his life from serious physical and emotional infirmities.  At age 32, he attempted suicide several times and was committed to an insane asylum.

After eighteen months of institutionalisation, he read in Romans 3:25 about Jesus Christ, “whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God”.  He soon experienced forgiveness of his sins through a personal relationship with Christ.

In 1767, he moved to Olney, Buckinghamshire, where John Newton, former slave trader and author of “Amazing Grace”, was curate of the Anglican parish church.  He and Newton collaborated in writing Olney Hymns (1799), an important and influential collection of evangelical hymns.

Among Cowper’s best-known hymns are:

William Cowper died in East Dereham, Norfolk, in 1800; the funeral service was conducted by his long-time friend and hymn-writing partner John Newton.