Souls in heathen darkness lying. Cecil F. Alexander, née Humphreys. [Missions.] This hymn is known in four forms, each by Mrs. Alexander, and beginning with the same first line, as follows:—
1. In E. Hawkins's Verses in Commemoration of the Third Jubilee of the S. P. G., 1851-52, p. 55, in 9 stanzas of 6 lines.
2. In the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Hymns for Public Worship, 1852, No. 184, in 4 stanzas of 6 lines, of which stanzas i.-iii. are from No. l and stanzas iv. is new. This is the form in which it is usually given in modern hymnbooks.
3. In Mrs. Alexander's Legend of the Golden Prayers and Other Poems, 1859, p. 167, in 8 stanzas of 6 lines. This is the text of the Verses, &c, 1851-52, with the omission of stanzas iv.
4. In Mrs. Carey Brock's Children's Hymn Book, 1881, No. 310 is composed of stanzas i., ii., vi., viii., from The Legend of the Golden Prayers, &c, as above.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
As a small girl, Cecil Frances Humphries (b. Redcross, County Wicklow, Ireland, 1818; Londonderry, Ireland, 1895) wrote poetry in her school's journal. In 1850 she married Rev. William Alexander, who later became the Anglican primate (chief bishop) of Ireland. She showed her concern for disadvantaged people by traveling many miles each day to visit the sick and the poor, providing food, warm clothes, and medical supplies. She and her sister also founded a school for the deaf. Alexander was strongly influenced by the Oxford Movement and by John Keble's Christian Year. Her first book of poetry, Verses for Seasons, was a "Christian Year" for children. She wrote hymns based on the Apostles' Creed, baptism, the Lord's Supper, the Ten Commandment… Go to person page >
My Starred Hymns
My FlexScores
My Hymnals
My Purchased Files