Forth to the Land of Promise

Author: Henry Alford

Alford, Henry, D.D., son of  the Rev. Henry Alford, Rector of Aston Sandford, b. at 25 Alfred Place, Bedford Row, London, Oct. 7, 1810, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in honours, in 1832. In 1833 he was ordained to the Curacy of Ampton. Subsequently he held the Vicarage of Wymeswold, 1835-1853,--the Incumbency of Quebec Chapel, London, 1853-1857; and the Deanery of Canterbury, 1857 to his death, which took. place  at  Canterbury, Jan. 12, 1871.  In addition he held several important appointments, including that of a Fellow of Trinity, and the Hulsean Lectureship, 1841-2. His literary labours extended to every department of literature, but his noblest undertaking was his edition of the Greek Testament, the result… Go to person page >

Forth to the land of promise bound. H. Alford. [Life a Pilgrimage.] Written at Apton in December, 1828 (Life, 1872, p. 39), and was given in his Psalms & Hymns, 1844, No. 68, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, and again in his Year of Praise, 1867, No. 181. It is also in several American collections. Its subject is the journey of the Children of Israel spiritualized.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)