Words: and . Al­len pub­lished the orig­in­al ver­sion of this hymn in the Ken­dal Hymn Book in 1757; Shir­ley re­cast the lyr­ics in 1770:

In its pre­sent form this hymn was wrought out of a bit­ter ex­per­i­ence in the life of Sir Wal­ter Shir­ley, who was at the time Rec­tor of Lough­rea in the Coun­ty of Gal­way, Ire­land. His bro­ther, the Earl of Fer­rars, a man of evil ha­bits, en­gaged in a quar­rel with one of his ser­vants, who had long been in his em­ploy, and in the pass­ion of his an­ger he mur­dered the old man. He was at once im­pris­oned; and Shir­ley, though mor­ti­fied by the ter­ri­ble dis­grace which the re­volt­ing crime had brought up­on his fam­i­ly, jour­neyed to his bro­thers’ pri­son and re­mained near him dur­ing the dis­tress­ing weeks that fol­lowed. The Earl was tried, con­vict­ed, and sen­tenced to be hanged at Ty­burn. Af­ter the ex­e­cu­tion Shir­ley, worn out by his long vi­gil and hu­mil­i­a­ted in spir­it, re­turn­ing to his par­ish, find­ing com­fort on­ly in the cross of Je­sus Christ.

Discovering an im­per­fect ex­press­ion of his emo­tions at that time in a hymn, “O How Hap­py Are the Mo­ments,” by the Rev. James All­en, he adapt­ed and re­vised the hymn so com­plete­ly that it be­came prac­ti­cal­ly a new com­po­si­tion, tru­ly po­et­ic in lang­uage and form, and ten­der­ly el­o­quent of his own ex­per­i­ence.

Music: Bat­ty, Mo­ra­vi­an mel­o­dy from the chor­ale Ringe recht in Er­baul­ich­er mu­sik­al­isch­en Christ­en-schatz (Ba­sel, Switz­er­land: 1745). Al­ter­nate tunes:

• Evening Prayer (Steb­bins), , 1878
• Love Divine (Stain­er), , 1889
• Merton (Monk), ,1850
• Talmar, , 1845