Will­iam P. Mer­rill, 1911; first pub­lished in the Pres­by­ter­i­an news­pa­per The Con­ti­nent. Mer­rill wrote:

No­lan R. Best, then ed­it­or of The Con­ti­nent, hap­pened to say to me that there was ur­gent need of a bro­ther­hood hymn…The sug­gest­ion lin­gered in my mind, and just about that time I came up­on an ar­ti­cle by Ger­ald Stan­ley Lee, en­ti­tled “The Church of the Strong Men.” I was on one of the Lake Mi­chi­gan steam­ers go­ing back to Chi­ca­go for a Sun­day at my own church, when sud­den­ly this hymn came up, al­most with­out con­scious thought or ef­fort.

Laufer, pp. 132-3

Fes­tal Song, Will­iam H. Wal­ter, in the Epis­co­pal Hym­nal with Tunes Old and New, by John Ire­land Tuck­er, 1872 (MIDI, NWC, PDF).

• St. Thom­as (Will­iams), Aar­on Will­iams, The New Un­i­vers­al Psalm­o­dist, 1770 (MIDI, NWC, PDF)