Sweet Hour of Prayer
142

Text: Attributed to William W. Walford (1772–1850); altered
Music: William B. Bradbury (1816–1868); altered
Tune name: SWEET HOUR

Some hymns address the Father directly; in others, we exhort one another to good works or speak words of personal commitment. This hymn is unusual in that it is addressed to the “hour of prayer” itself. Speaking as if to a person, we express gratitude for the rest and comfort it provides amid the distractions and cares of daily life.

J. Spencer Cornwall observed that “this hymn is appealing to large numbers of people, due to its solemnity and its contemplative character” (Stories of Our Mormon Hymns, 184). The text is said to have been written in 1842 by the Reverend William W. Walford, a blind English minister. The Reverend Thomas Salmon, pastor of the Congregational Church at Coleshill, England, wrote it down as Reverend Walford spoke the words; he had it published in the New York Observer in 1845.

The two verses in our hymnal are just as in Reverend Walford’s original; however, the hymn originally had an additional verse that has been omitted in Latter- day Saint hymnals. As a matter of interest, the missing verse is given below; the phrase “God my Savior” is not consonant with Latter- day Saint belief in a three- member Godhead, and thus the verse is more suitable for a Protestant hymnal than for ours:

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
The joys I feel, the bliss I share
Of those whose anxious spirits burn
With strong desires for thy return!
With such I hasten to the place
Where God my Savior shows his face,
And gladly take my station there,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

Editors of some modern hymnals shorten the tune to avoid the repetition of the last two lines. The omitted measures are those that appear as the next to last line of music in our hymnal.