Dear Lord and Father of Mankind is a popular hymn with words taken from a poem by Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier. It is sung to the tune Repton by C. Hubert H. Parry, a composer best known for his setting of William Blake’s poem Jerusalem. The hymn was recently voted second in BBC One Songs of Praise’s poll to find the nation’s favourite hymn. A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a god or other religiously significant figure. ... The Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, or Friends, is a religious community founded in England in the 17th century. ... A poet is some one who writes poetry. ... John Greenleaf Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892) was an American Quaker poet and forceful advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. ... Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (February 27, 1848 – October 7, 1918) was an English composer, probably best known for his setting of William Blakes poem, Jerusalem. ... William Blake in an 1807 portrait by Thomas Phillips William Blake (November 28, 1757–August 12, 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. ... And did those feet in ancient time is a short poem by William Blake from the preface to his epic Milton: a Poem (1804). ... BBC One (or BBC1 as it was formerly styled) is the oldest television station in the world. ... Songs of Praise is a BBC television programme based on religion and ethics, based around traditional Christian hymns. ...

Hymn Text

The text set is the following, often the fourth verse is omitted:

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,

Forgive our foolish ways!

Reclothe us in our rightful mind,

In purer lives Thy service find,

In deeper reverence, praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard

Beside the Syrian sea

The gracious calling of the Lord,

Let us, like them, without a word

Rise up and follow Thee.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee!

O calm of hills above,

Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee

The silence of eternity

Interpreted by love!

With that deep hush subduing all

Our words and works that drown

The tender whisper of Thy call,

As noiseless let Thy blessing fall

As fell Thy manna down.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,

Till all our strivings cease;

Take from our souls the strain and stress,

And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of Thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire

Thy coolness and Thy balm;

Let sense be numb, let flesh retire;

Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,

O still, small voice of calm!

The Brewing of Soma

The Brewing of Soma is the Whittier poem (1872) from which the hymn is taken. Soma was a ritual drink from at least 2000BC believed to have many hallucinogenic properties, not unlike those of psychedelic mushrooms. Soma is often portrayed in a trinitarian way as a God, a drink, and a plant, giving it very sacred and divine meanings, mostly in the Hindu faith. Soma (Sanskrit), or Haoma (Avestan) (from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma-) was a ritual drink of importance among the early Indo-Iranians, and the later Vedic and greater Persian cultures. ... Hallucinogenic drugs or hallucinogens are drugs that can alter sensory perceptions, elicit alternate states of consciousness, or cause hallucinations. ... A handful of freshly picked Psilocybe semilanceata (Liberty Caps). ... For other uses, see Trinity (disambiguation). ... Hinduism (Sanskrit: , , also known as , ) is a set of religious traditions that originated mainly in the Indian subcontinent. ...

The storyline is of Vedic priests going into the forest and drinking themselves into a drunken stupor. The purpose is to have a religious experience and contact the spirit world. It is after setting that scene that Whittier draws his lesson: "Dear Lord, and Father of mankind, forgive our foolish ways..." The verses taken for the hymn show the futility of trying to find God through some "experience" and ask God for forgiveness. The adjective Vedic may refer to The Vedas, the oldest preserved Indo-Aryan texts. ...

The poem opens with a quote from a Hindu Sanskrit text Vashista. The Sanskrit language ( , ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. ...

"These libations mixed with milk have been prepared for Indra:

offer Soma to the drinker of Soma."

Vashista, translated by Max Muller.

The fagots blazed, the caldron's smoke

Up through the green wood curled;

"Bring honey from the hollow oak,

Brink milky sap," the brewers spoke,

In the childhood of the world.

And brewed they well or brewed they ill,

The priests thrust in their rods,

First tasted, and then drank their fill,

And shouted, with one voice and will,

"Behold, the drink of gods!"

They drank, and lo! in heart and brain

A new, glad life began;

The gray of hair grew young again,

The sick man laughed away his pain,

The cripple leaped and ran.

"Drink, mortals, what the gods have sent,

Forget your long annoy."

So sang the priests. From tent to tent

The Soma's sacred madness went,

A storm of drunken joy.

Then knew each rapt inebriate

A winged and glorious birth,

Soared upward, with strange joy elate,

Beat, with dazed head, Varuna's gate,

And sobered, sank to earth.

The land with Soma's praises rang;

On Gihon's banks of shade

Its hymns the dusky maidens sang;

In joy of life or mortal pang

All men to Soma prayed.

The morning twilight of the race

Sends down these matin psalms;

And still with wondering eyes we trace

The simple prayers to Soma's grace,

That Vedic verse embalms.

As in that child-world's early year,

Each after age has striven

By music, incense, vigils drear,

And trance, to bring the skies more near,

Or lift men up to heaven!

Some fever of the blood and brain,

Some self-exalting spell,

The scourger's keen delight of pain,

the Dervish dance, the Orphic strain,

The wild-haired Bacchant's yell,—

The desert's hair-grown hermit sunk

The saner brute below;

The naked Santon, hashish-drunk,

The cloister madness of the monk,

The fakir's torture show!

And yet the past comes round again,

And new doth old fulfil;

In sensual transports wild as vain

We brew in many a Christian fane

The heathen Soma still!

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,

Forgive our foolish ways!

Reclothe us in our rightful mind,

In purer lives Thy service find,

In deeper reverence, praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard

Beside the Syrian sea

The gracious calling of the Lord,

Let us, like them, without a word

Rise up and follow Thee.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee!

O calm of hills above,

Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee

The silence of eternity

Interpreted by love!

With that deep hush subduing all

Our words and works that drown

The tender whisper of Thy call,

As noiseless let Thy blessing fall

As fell Thy manna down.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,

Till all our strivings cease;

Take from our souls the strain and stress,

And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of Thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire

Thy coolness and Thy balm;

Let sense be numb, let flesh retire;

Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,

O still, small voice of calm!

Hymn Tunes used

This hymn is generally sung to the tune Repton. This tune by Hubert Parry was originally written in 1888 for the contralto aria 'Long since in Egypt's pleasant land' in his oratorio Judith. In 1924 Dr George Gilbert Stocks, director of music at Repton School, set it to 'Dear Lord and Father of mankind' in a supplement of tunes for use in the school chapel. Despite the need to repeat the last line of words, the tune Repton provides an inspired matching of words and music. Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (February 27, 1848 – October 7, 1918) was an English composer, probably best known for his setting of William Blakes poem, Jerusalem. ... Overview The Arch, Repton School Repton School, founded in 1557, is a public school in Derbyshire, England. ...

Other tunes it can be sung to are:

• Rest by Frederick Maker
• Hammersmith by William Henry Gladstone

References

• BBC Songs of Praise poll
• Cyberhymnal entry
• Full text of the poem