We are but little children poor [weak]. Cecil F. Alexander, née Humphreys. [Holy Baptism.] Published in Dr. Hook's Leeds Church Sunday School Hymn Book, 1850, in 9 stanzas of 4 lines. It is in use, sometimes abbreviated, in its original form; as "We are but little children weak” in the 1868 Appendix to Hymns Ancient & Modern, and numerous other collections; and as, “O Lord, the Holy Innocents" (st. ii.), in the American Protestant Episcopal Hymnal, 1871. In these various forms it is in extensive use.
--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 >
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