O God of love, O King of peace

The most striking, salutary and humbling fact about this hymn is that it was written for the 1st edn of A&M in 1861. While war is never trivial, the century of slaughter which followed the one known to Henry Baker puts his own horror of war and prayer for peace into some kind of perspective. In A&M it was headed ‘In Time of War’; ironically, when for Britain, its neighbours, or both, that ‘Time’ is virtually continuous, the hymn was omitted from edns of 1983 and onwards; whether because the prayer was deemed to have failed it is impossible to know. Others might see it as more necessary than ever; the ‘wars and rumours of wars’ (Mark 13:7) are inevitable but not necessarily incessant, and the certainty of them no more excuses us from praying for peace than the inevitability of illness means we should not pray for healing. The text is built on the 4th line of each of its stzs; the only changes needed are ‘deeds’ for ‘works’ at 2.1 (cf Psalm 25:6 etc) and ‘one’ for ‘knit’ at 4.2.

Timothy Battle Mason’s tune EDEN was originally called MONTGOMERY; both names have at least two other claimants. It was published in 1836 in his native N America in The Sacred Harp, which he edited. In Britain it has been set to various hymns, including Isaac Watts’ Eternal Spirit, we confess in GH, and two others in CH, all in the key of A flat. A&M preferred ROCKINGHAM (453) with Baker’s words.

b Vauxhall, S London, 1821; d Monkland, Herefs 1877. The eldest son of an Admiral and Baronet; Trinity Coll Camb (BA, MA), ordained (CofE) 1844. After a curacy at Great Horkesley nr Colchester, Essex, he became Vicar of the small parish of Monkland (pop c200), a few miles W of Leominster, from 1851 until his death at the age of 56. There being no vicarage, he had one built with space for a private chapel with a small organ; he then established Monkland’s first school. Within his opening few months he had also written his first hymn, published in an 1852 collection made by Francis Murray, Rector of Chislehurst; but greater things were soon afoot. From a crucial meeting at St Barnabas Pimlico, London, in 1858 (see also under Baring-Gould and Woodward) and a formal committee established in the following January, Baker became a founding father of what became Hymns Ancient and Modern. As the project‘s first chairman and its main driving force, he conducted much of the work at and from his vicarage, still in his 30s. After 2 ‘samplers’ in 1859 (the year he inherited his father’s baronetcy) with respectively 50 and 138 hymns, the first official edition including 33 of his own texts and translations appeared in 1861. After an early disappointment Baker never married; but the vicarage, presided over by Henry’s sister Jessy, was a hub of activity often filled with fellow-hymnologists, scholars, editors and workers. They also met regularly at Pimlico, the new railways between London, Leominster, and elsewhere proving a key factor in their work and personal contacts. Baker himself often had to handle tactfully, by post or otherwise, questions of Anglican doctrine, poetic style, copyright terms, payments and fees, textual alterations and (later) how to safeguard its future.

Their book attracted much criticism for editorial changes, but weathered the storm to become the most popular hymn book ever, through main editions of 1868, 1904 (its least successful revision), 1923, 1950, 1983, and 2000. The latest edn, well over a century on, retains 11 of his original texts, versions and translations; 13 are included in the evangelical Anglican Hymn Book of 1965. Among his other writings was Daily Prayers for the Use of those who have to work hard—fittingly from the pen of a man of immense energy and versatility. Julian, who calls his editing labours ‘very arduous’, compares his ‘tender’ and ‘plaintive’ hymnwriting with that of H F Lyte, qv. Among other biographical treatments, he features in Bernard Braley’s Hymnwriters 2 (1989); the 150th anniversary of A&M was celebrated in Monkland and Leominster in 2011. Nos.23C, 371*, 435, 911*, 952*.