Jane Laurie Borthwick (1813-1897), the author of this hymn, was a member of the Free Church of Scotland, the evangelical group led by Thomas Chalmers that separated from the Church of Scotland in 1843.  Borthwick began reading German-language pietist hymnody during a stay in Switzerland and, encouraged by her father, began translating some hymns soon after.  She and her sister Sarah (Mrs. Eric Findlater, who was married to a Free Church minister) translated 122 German hymns (69 by Jane and 53 by Sarah), which they published in 1853 as Hymns from the Land of Luther.  In the introduction Borthwick says, “A few of the following poems may be considered as rather imitations than translations, although the ideas and structure are too much borrowed to be called original.” There were several subsequent editions.  Her best-known translation from German is “Be still, my soul,” normally sung to Sibelius’ “Finlandia.”  Because she wished to remain anonymous, Borthwick adopted the letters H.L.L. from the title as her pseudonym; she was displeased when the Rev. Charles Rogers used her real name in Lyra Britannica (1867), a collection which contained several of her hymns.   In addition to translations, she wrote many original hymns, of which “Come, labour on” has had the longest currency.  The hymn has no real connection, of course, to our modern secular Labour Day, for its labour is opus dei (Not to be confused with the ultra-conservative Roman Catholic group.).  Borthwick published her poem with seven stanzas in Thoughts for Thoughtful Hours (1859) and in a revised version in a second edition in 1863.  It first appeared in a hymn book in 1898 in The Church Hymnary, a collection created for the Church of Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland, the United Presbyterian Church, and the Presbyterian Church of Ireland.  That collection contained six of Borthwick’s hymns.  It was first included in an Anglican collection in the unsuccessful Ancient & Modern (A&M) edited by Bertram Luard-Selby in 1904.  Borthwick wrote a number of other works in both verse and prose, including several books for children and several books about missionary works in which she was actively involved.  Jane Borthwick lived all her life in Edinburgh; she never married.  She is buried in Greyfriars Cemetery.

The tune Ora Labora was written for this hymn by Thomas Tertius Noble (1867-1953) in 1916 for The Hymnal of the Episcopal Church in the United States.  (The Latin phrase Ora et labora, “Pray and work,” is associated with Benedictine monasticism.)  Noble was born in Bath, England; his middle name signified that he was the third Thomas in his family.  An older sister taught him to play piano, and his first organ lessons may have been with James Pyne, the organist of Bath Abbey; the Rev. Charles Everitt, a family friend who was Rector of All Saints, Colchester, undertook Noble’s education and appointed him organist of All Saints when he was 14.  Later Noble studied at the Royal College of Music, where his teachers were C.V. Stanford, Walter Parratt and Frederick Bridge, the organist of Westminster Abbey.  After graduating, at age 22 Noble joined the faculty of the RCM until he became Stanford’s assistant at Trinity College, Cambridge, for a few years.  He anticipated succeeding Stanford at Trinity, but was disappointed.  He then, in 1892, became organist of Ely Cathedral, where he married the Dean’s daughter.  He moved to York Minster as organist in 1898, and while there also founded the York Symphony Orchestra.  He remained at York until 1913, when he accepted the position of organist and choirmaster of the Episcopal church of St Thomas on Fifth Avenue in New York City. (He was succeeded in York by Edward Bairstow.)  The New York church was just rebuilt after a devastating fire had destroyed the previous church in 1905.  The new organ for the church was built to Noble’s specifications by the Skinner Organ Company as Opus 205. (It has had several rebuilds and is now the John Scott Memorial organ.)  In 1919 Noble founded the St Thomas Choir School, on the model of the choir school at York Minster.  (The school at York, founded in 627 and refounded in 1903, closed in 2020 because it was too expensive to continue; the school in New York is in danger of closing this year.)  Well-known as an organist and choral conductor, Noble was also a composer of both Anglican service choral music and instrumental music.  He was the editor of Handel’s Messiah for Schirmer, which was for many years the standard edition.  Noble retired from St Thomas’s in 1948 and moved to his summer home on Cape Ann, Rockport, Massachusetts, where he died in 1953.  He is buried in Beech Grove Cemetery in Rockport.

Join us on Labour Day Sunday as we conclude our worship with this wonderful hymn! The Cathedral Choir returns this weekend also, singing Jonathan Tuuk's Mass of the Holy Trinity.