Introduction

Words: Sam­uel F. Smith, 1834.

Music: Aquil­la Nic­co­lò A. Zin­ga­rel­li (1752–1837) (🔊 pdf nwc).

This hymn…was doubt­less pre­pared for some oc­ca­sion of pro­tract­ed ser­vice, some ga­ther­ing of a large body of peo­ple. It was the cus­tom…to in­tro­duce the au­tumn and win­ter work with a con­ti­nu­ous as­sem­blage of church mem­bers.

It was be­lieved that unit­ed pray­er would sti­mu­late the grac­es of true be­liev­ers, and fer­vid ex­hor­ta­tions would arouse the lag­gard ones to fresh du­ty. And it was al­ways un­der­stood that, when the saints came back to faith­ful ac­ti­vi­ty, the Ho­ly Spir­it would sure­ly an­swer with en­er­gy in the con­ver­sion of souls.

No doubt, writes good Will­iam Gur­nall, the fa­mous di­vine of the sev­en­teenth cen­tu­ry; no doubt the pray­ers which the faith­ful put up to hea­ven from un­der their pri­vate roofs are ve­ry ac­cep­ta­ble to God; but if a saint’s sin­gle voice in pray­er be so sweet to his ear, much more the church choir, his saints’ pray­ers in con­cert to­ge­ther. A fa­ther is glad to see any one of his child­ren, and makes him we­lcome when he vis­its him; but much more when they come to­ge­ther; the great­est feast when they all meet at his house.

Robinson, p. 35