Hymn #16: Let Us with a Joyful Mind | First Congregational Church

John Milton (1608-1674) wrote nineteen psalm paraphrases, this one based on Psalm 136. Milton was only fifteen and a student at St. Paul’s School, London, England, when he wrote this one, which originally contained twenty-four stanzas. Thomas H. Troeger adapted Milton’s words for The New Century Hymnal, seeking to remain faithful to the spirit of the original text.

John Milton was an avid supporter of the revolution of Oliver Cromwell in England and wrote in defense of the Commonwealth and for freedom of the press. He was forced by blindness to give up other pursuits and had to dictate his greatest poetic works, including his masterwork, Paradise Lost.

This tune was called AN ANCIENT LITANY when first printed in the Journal of the Society for Promoting Church Music in 1850. It was later renamed INNOCENTS since it was composed for the Feast of the Holy Innocents, which is celebrated on December 28 in remembrance of the children martyred by Herod.

The Parish Choir was a monthly publication of the Society for Promoting Church Music that offered tunes to fit the English words in the Prayer Book. Its purpose was to improve the quality of music used in the English church of the time. Although it was published only from 1846 to 1851, it accomplished its goal.