How Firm a Foundation

DESCRIPTION: "How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in God's excellent Word! What more can be said than to you God hath said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?" Whatever perils threaten, Jesus will be there
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1787 (John Rippon's "Selection of Hymns from the Best Authord", according to Julian)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 103, "How Firm a Foundation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Original Sacred Harp, 1971 Denson Revision, p. 72, "How Firm a Foundation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7102
RECORDINGS:
Artricia Gordon, "How Firm a Foundation" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #88, recorded 12/29/2021)
SAME TUNE:
Ellen Smith [Laws F11] (File: LF11)
NOTES [204 words]: The original attribution of this in Rippon's Selection was apparently just "K." Julian, p. 537, says "The authorship of this hymn has been the subject of much enquiry. We have (1) in modern editions of Rippon the name of "Kirkham"; (2) in Fletcher's 1835 ed... "Keen"; (3) and in Spurgeon's O. O. H. Bk., "George Keith."
Julian concludes that the correct author is Keen. Johnson does not attempt to elucidate the signature "K" but seems to say that the tune is from John F. Wade's 1751 "Cantus Diversi." Hymnary.org mentions both "George Keith" and "R. Keen."
McKim, p. 361, says that R. Keene was the precentor at John Rippon's church and wrote the tune, allowing the possibility that he wrote the text also. Reynolds, p. 90, says that Keene was the precentor at Rippon's church 1776-1793 and probably helped with the "Selection of Hymns" but believes that Keene did not write the words, since no other hymns are attributed to him.
No other source I've seen seems to have anything to add to this, though some may attribute the song to a particular author rather than admitting uncertainty.
It's sad that more cannot be said, because the hymn is very popular, used by almost every American denomination and many British. - RBW
Bibliography

Julian: John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes)
McKim: LindaJo H. McKim, Presbyterian Hymnal Companion, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993
Reynolds: William Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal, Broadman Press, 1976

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File: DPio088

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