Awhile in spirit, Lord, to Thee

Joseph Francis Thrupp. [Lent.] Written by Joseph Francis Thrupp, this Lenten hymn is among the most widely recognized of his poetic works. It was first published in his Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship (1853, No. 64) in 4 stanzas of 4 lines. In 1861, the Reverend Francis Pott included an altered version in his Hymns fitted to the Order of Common Prayer (No. 72), in which he transposed the third and fourth stanzas, introduced minor textual changes, and appended a doxology translated from the Latin. Pott's revision was adopted in Church Hymns (1871, No. 103). Godfrey Thring preserved the original text structure in his Collection (1882, No. 154), while adopting Pott's alteration of the second line in stanza one to "Into the desert would we flee." The American collection Hymns and Songs of Praise (New York, 1874) featured Pott's text with slight adjustments while omitting the concluding doxology.