Sweet Hour of Prayer

About this video

“Sweet Hour of Prayer” is traditionally attributed to W. W. Walford, an obscure blind lay preacher from Coleshill, Warwickshire, England, who reportedly composed the poem from memory and shared it with Thomas Salmon, a minister who later brought it to America. The text was first printed in The New York Observer on September 13, 1845, though some details of Walford’s identity remain uncertain, so careful hymn histories usually say the hymn is “attributed” to him rather than proven beyond doubt. Its familiar tune was later composed by William B. Bradbury and published in The Golden Chain in 1861, helping turn Walford’s quiet meditation on prayer into one of the best-known devotional hymns in English-speaking churches. A reverent version of “Sweet Hour of Prayer,” centered on the comfort, peace, and strength found in prayer. This hymn carries a quiet but serious message: when burdens grow heavy, prayer brings the believer back before God. This is an alternate rendition of the beloved hymn.