I [We] love the sacred book of God

Author: Thomas Kelly

Kelly, Thomas, B.A., son of Thomas Kelly, a Judge of the Irish Court of Common Pleas, was born in Dublin, July 13, 1769, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He was designed for the Bar, and entered the Temple, London, with that intention; but having undergone a very marked spiritual change he took Holy Orders in 1792. His earnest evangelical preaching in Dublin led Archbishop Fowler to inhibit him and his companion preacher, Rowland Hill, from preaching in the city. For some time he preached in two unconsecrated buildings in Dublin, Plunket Street, and the Bethesda, and then, having seceded from the Established Church, he erected places of worship at Athy, Portarlington, Wexford, &c, in which he conducted divine worship and preached. H… Go to person page >

I love the sacred book of God. T. Kelly. [Holy Scripture.] This hymn is in two forms, and both by Kelly. The first form was published in the first edition of his Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture, 1804, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines; and the second in the Dublin ed., 1836, No. 39lines Both forms are in common use; the first in Windle, and the revised in Snepp's Songs of Grace & Glory 1872. Various collections in Great Britain and America, some in the original, and others in the revised form. These can be tested by Windle and Snepp.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)