Hymn of the Week: June 14, 2021
Hymn of the Week: Breathe on Me, Breath of God
#286 in Glory to God
Text Edwin Hatch 1878
Music Robert Jackson 1888
Breathe on Me, Breath of God
Breathe on me, breath of God.
Fill me with life anew,
that I may love what thou dost love,
and do what thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
until my heart is pure,
until with thee, I will one will:
to do and to endure.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
till I am wholly thine,
until this earthly part of me
glows with thy fire divine.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
so shall I never die,
but live with thee the perfect life
of thine eternity.
The simplicity of this profound hymn belies the education and knowledge of its author, Edwin Hatch (1835-1889).
Educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, Hatch ministered in an Anglican parish in the slums of east London before accepting a position at Trinity College in Quebec where he taught classics. After serving as Rector of Quebec High School, he returned to Oxford to become the vice-principal of St. Mary’s Hall and took several posts including the Bampton Lecturer, Reader in Ecclesiastical History, and the Hibbert Lecturer.
Hatch was recognized as an authority on the early church as a result of his Bampton Lectures, “On the Organization of Early Christian Churches,” which were acknowledged by a leading continental scholar on this topic and translated into German.
In spite of Hatch’s scholarship, his one remaining hymn reflects both a profound simplicity and a deep knowledge of Scripture. Our hymn draws largely from John 20:21-22, following John’s account of the Resurrection, for its inspiration: “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even, so send I you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (RSV)
This passage in John correlates with Genesis 2:7 where “the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.”
The author invokes the Holy Spirit to come into his life and transform it. Using the first-person perspective throughout the hymn adds to the hymn’s power as the singer seeks the breath of God (Genesis 2:7) as a source for renewal.
British hymnologist J.R. Watson notes that the hymn “was given the title of ‘Spiritus Dei’ [Spirit of God], thus linking the image of ‘breath’ with that of the Holy Spirit (as in the Greek, where the same word is used for ‘spirit’ and ‘breath.’”
Mr. Watson also finds echoes of John 3:3-8, especially verses 5-7: “Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’”
Summarizing the message of the hymn, Mr. Watson suggests that the breath of God “brings new life and love, purity and obedience, surrender and inspiration, and finally eternal life, as the hymn moves through various stages of Christian experience and discipline towards a unity with God.”
The hymn was first published by Hatch in Between Doubt and Prayer (1878), a privately printed volume. Henry Allon included it in the hymnal, The Congregational Psalmist in 1886. Hatch’s widow then published this hymn posthumously in Towards Fields of Light: Sacred Poems (1890).
The tune most often used in the U.S. is TRENTHAM, named for a small village in Staffordshire, England. TRENTHAM was composed by Robert Jackson (1842-1914) in 1888 originally for a text by Henry W. Baker, “O Perfect Love of Life.”
Today’s article comes from Dr. Michael C. Hawn, professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology.
Enjoy today’s performance by JuBellee Bells which you may have heard at yesterday’s service! Thanks for all your hard work JuBellee. Many apologies if you heard a dull drone in the background. Not certain what’s going on.
