For Victorious Faith

Author: William Hiley Bathurst

Bathurst, William Hiley , M.A., son of the Rt. Hon. Charles Bragge (afterwards Bathurst) some time M.P. for Bristol, born at Clevedale, near Bristol, Aug. 28, 1796, and educated at Winchester, and Christ Church, Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1818. From 1820 to 1852 he held the Rectory of Barwick-in-Elmet, near Leeds. Resigning the Rectory in the latter year, through his inability to reconcile his doctrinal views with the Book of Common Prayer, he retired into private life, and died at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, Nov. 25, 1877. His works include, The Georgics of Virgil: Translated by W. H. B., 1849; Metrical Musings; or, Thoughts on Sacred Subjects in Verse, 1849; and Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Use, 1831 (2nd ed. 1842). This last… Go to person page >

O for a faith that will not shrink. W. H. Bathurst. [Faith.] First published in his Psalms and Hymns, &c, 1831, Hy. 86, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled, "The Power of Faith." As found in Hymns Ancient & Modern, the Hymnal Companion, and others, stanza iv. is omitted. Its omission is a great gain to the hymn, as it mars its simplicity and tenderness. It reads:—

"That bears unmov'd the world's dread frown,
Nor heeds its scornful smile;
That sin's wild ocean cannot drown,
Nor its soft arts beguile."

The use of this hymn is great, and more especially in America, where it is given in most of the leading collections.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)