The Glory of the Spring

Author: Thomas Hornblower Gill

Gill, Thomas Hornblower, was born at Bristol Road, Birmingham, Feb. 10th, 1819. His parents belonged to English Presbyterian families which, like many others, had become Unitarian in their doctrine. He was educated at King Edward's Grammar School under Dr. Jeune, afterwards Bishop of Peterborough. He left the school in 1838, and would have proceeded to the University of Oxford, but was prevented by his hereditary Unitarianism (long since given up), which forbade subscription to the Articles of the Church of England then necessary for entrance to the University. This constrained him to lead the life of an isolated student, in which he gave himself chiefly to historical and theological subjects. Hence his life has been singularly devoid of ou… Go to person page >

The glory of the Spring, how sweet. T. H Gill. [Spring.] "Composed at Whitsuntide, 1867, and first printed in the Golden Chain, &c, 1869," No. 112, in 9 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled "The Divine Renewer. ‘Thou renewest the face of the earth.' Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.’" It is an exquisite lyric, and has been somewhat widely used, but usually with the omission of one or more stanzas. In Great Britain it is in Dale's English Hymn Book, 1874, No. 1143; the Baptist Hymnal, 1879, No. 816; Horder's Congregational Hymns, 1884, No. 622, and others, and in America in the Songs of the Spirit, N. Y., 1871, &c.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)