‘Sweet Hour of Prayer”

is attributed to William W. Walford who was a blind preacher of England. This hymn first appeared in print in the New York Observer on September 13, 1845.

The Observer contributor who assembled the hymn says:

“During my residence at Coleshill, Warwickshire, England, I became acquainted with W. W. Walford, the blind preacher, a man of obscure birth and connections and no education, but of strong mind and most retentive memory. In the pulpit he never failed to select a lesson well adapted to his subject, giving chapter and verse with unerring precision, and scarcely ever misplacing a word in his repetition of the Psalms, every part of the New Testament, the prophecies, and some of the histories, so as to have the reputation of knowing the whole Bible by heart.”

“This hymn has touched hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides of the Atlantic, expressing the genuine joy he found in prayer.”

The Arrangement Uses: