’Tis the Blessed Hour of Prayer

I. Origins

Even though Fanny Crosby (1820–1915) did not formally address the composition of this hymn, she did describe the important role of prayer in her life and in her craft. She once described her grandmother as being formative in that area:

My grandmother was a woman of exemplary piety; and from her I learned many useful and abiding lessons. She was a firm believer in prayer; and, when I was very young, taught me to believe that our Father in Heaven will always give us whatever is for our good; and therefore that we should be careful not to ask him anything that is not consistent with His Holy Will. At evening-time she used to call me to her dear old rocking chair; then we would kneel down together and repeat some simple petition.[1]

Elsewhere, she described part of her process of writing hymns, especially when expected to write on demand or on a schedule:

So what would I do, if it were necessary or highly desirable that a hymn be written on a certain day or night: as, for some occasion, or some work soon to be published? If I were not in the mood to write, I would build a mood—or try to draw one around me. I should sit alone, as I have done on many a day or night, praying God to give me the thoughts and the feelings wherewith to compose my hymn. After a time—perhaps not unmingled with struggle—the ideas would come, and I would soon be happy in my verse.

It may seem a little old-fashioned, always to begin one’s work in prayer: but I never undertake a hymn without first asking the good Lord to be my inspiration in the work that I am about to do.[2]

Fanny Crosby wrote “’Tis the blessed hour of prayer” in 1880, and it was set to music by one of her most trusted collaborators, William Howard Doane (1832–1915), or sometimes Doane would write a melody first, and Crosby would create words for it. Her professional relationship with Doane has been expressed in the stories behind “Draw Me Nearer” and “To God Be the Glory.” This hymn was first published in Good As Gold (NY: Biglow & Main, 1880). The tune is usually called BLESSED HOUR.

II. Analysis

The hymn was originally published in four stanzas of four lines, with a recurring fifth line (“What a balm for the weary! O how sweet to be there!”). The stanzas have an interesting ABBAA rhyme scheme. The chorus adds only four bars of new musical material and only one phrase of extra text, before returning to the same recurring line at the end of the stanzas. The D.S. ending, as a compositional device, is fairly common in gospel hymns. Musically, it stays within the gospel template, using some dotted rhythms and basic harmonies (I–IV–V). It has a secondary dominant chord leading to a half cadence in the middle of the stanzas, and the melody stays within an octave, tonic to tonic.

The original printing was headed with Acts 3:1, “Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour,” an appropriate reference, but the hymn itself was probably more directly related to Fanny Crosby’s experiences taking part in prayer meetings at her home church, the Old John Street Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City, and elsewhere. The text is rendered in first person plural, speaking of a gathering, and saying “O how sweet to be there!” Compare this to another classic hymn, “Sweet hour of prayer,” which is in first person singular and could refer to a private ritual.

The first stanza mentions asking in faith, an important facet of effective prayer given in Matthew 21:22 and James 1:6. The recurring line is consistent with the assurance given in Isaiah 40:28–31, which says the God who is never weary will renew the strength of his people. The second stanza says the Lord is compassionate (Psalm 86:15 and elsewhere), and it uses words from 1 Peter 5:7 (“Casting all your care upon him”). Relating to the third stanza, Hebrews 4:15 speaks of a Savior who is able to sympathize with human weakness because he himself was tempted. The final stanza relates closely to the prayer of belief in Mark 11:24 (“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours”).

Pastor and devotional writer Robert Cottrill summarized the hymn in this manner:

Could there be a more tender and lovely hymn, about the blessing awaiting God’s people at Prayer Meeting? It certainly captures something of the spirit of the occasion. Expressed in it, there is a love for the Lord, a concern for one another, and a delight in the opportunity to pray together.[3]

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
23 September 2020

Footnotes:

1. Fanny Crosby, Memories of Eighty Years (Boston: J.H. Earle, 1906), p. 12: Archive.org

2. Fanny Crosby, Fanny Crosby’s Life Story (NY: Every Where, 1903), pp. 124–125: Archive.org

3. Robert Cottrill, “’Tis the blessed hour of prayer,” Wordwise Hymns (10 June 2011): https://wordwisehymns.com/2011/06/10/tis-the-blessed-hour-of-prayer/

Related Resources:

“Tis the blessed hour of prayer,” Hymnary.org: https://hymnary.org/text/tis_the_blessed_hour_of_prayer