Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou would’st do.
Breath on me, Breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Blend all my soul with Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.
Edwin Hatch, Towards Fields of Light: Sacred Poems (Hodder & Stoughton, 1890)
Edwin Hatch was the author of, amongst other things, The Hatch-Redpath Concordance to the Septuagint, still a useful tool in Septuagint studies. It remained incomplete at his untimely death in 1889, and was completed by his younger colleague Henry Redpath. His book of his religious poetry, Towards Fields of Light: Sacred Poems, was published in the year following his death. It is another example, and there are many, of the devotion of a renowned scholar to the Cause of all.