A little while—our Lord shall come

"A little while, our Lord shall come" is a prominent nineteenth-century Christian hymn composed by the influential Plymouth Brethren writer and minister James George Deck. Written with a strong focus on the Second Advent of Christ, the text captures the typical Brethren emphasis on prophetic anticipation, watchfulness, and the short duration of the believer's earthly exile.

The hymn was first introduced to the public in the Appendix to Hymns for the Poor of the Flock, an early and highly important compilation published in 1841. In its original format, the piece was structured in four stanzas of six lines each. Following its debut, it became a standard inclusion in subsequent hymnbooks assembled for the use of the Plymouth Brethren.

As evangelical interest in premillennial theology grew outside the Brethren movement, Deck's hymn crossed denominational lines. In 1855, it was adopted into the widely circulated Cheltenham Collection, which was compiled by the evangelical Anglican minister Dr. Edward Walker.

The hymn achieved further prominence when it was compiled into the Reverend Charles Busbridge Snepp's major evangelical collection, Songs of Grace and Glory, in 1872. Snepp chose to preserve the original, authentic text of the hymn. A notable textual detail retained in Snepp's edition appears in the fourth line of the first stanza, which reads "hath gone" rather than the modernized "has gone." Through these successful inclusions, Deck's verse reached a vast network of Protestant congregations throughout the British Empire and North America.