Father, Thy Presence ever near. [Benediction.] This hymn was given in Longfellow and Johnson's Hymns of the Spirit, 1864, No. 135, in 3 stanzas of 4 lines, and signed in the Index "N. Hale." In The Pilgrim Hymnal, Boston, 1904, stanzas i., ii. are repeated with the same signature. A Nathan Hale, born Nov. 12, 1818, is known to us, but we are unable to identify him as the author of this hymn. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)