Our times are in Thy hand, and Thou Wilt guide our footsteps at Thy will

Author: John Bowring

James Bowring was born at Exeter, in 1792. He possessed at an early age a remarkable power of attaining languages, and acquired some reputation by his metrical translations of foreign poems. He became editor of "The Westminster Review" in 1825, and was elected to Parliament in 1835. In 1849, he was appointed Consul at Canton, and in 1854, was made Governor of Hong Kong, and received the honour of knighthood. He is the author of some important works on politics and travel, and is the recipient of several testimonials from foreign governments and societies. His poems and hymns have also added to his reputation. His "Matins and Vespers" have passed through many editions. In religion he is a Unitarian. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charl… Go to person page >

Our times are in Thy hand, and Thou Wilt guide our footsteps, &c. Sir J. Bowring. [Divine guidance.] The first stanza of this hymn reads:--

”Our times are in Thy hand, and Thou
Wilt guide our footsteps at Thy will:
Lord, to Thy purposes we bow:
Do Thou Thy purposes fulfil.”

The hymn appeared in Beard’s Unitarian Collection of Hymns, 1837, No. 27, in 3 stanzas of 4 lines, but is not marked, in common with other hymns by Sir J. Bowring, as “Original.” In the 3rd edition of the uthor’s Matins and Vespers, 1841, p. 229, it was given in an unaltered form. In the American Unitarian Hymns of the Spirit, 1864, it reads “My times are in Thy hand,” &c.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)