LDS Hymns

-History: (Source: Wikipedia)

“A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief” was a favorite hymn of Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. The hymn was introduced in the church by Apostle John Taylor, who learned the hymn in 1840 as a missionary in England.^[1] Taylor included the hymn in the Latter Day Saints’ Manchester Hymnal, which was used in England from 1840 to 1912. The hymn was also included in the church’s 1841 hymnal published in Nauvoo, Illinois. Unlike the version in the Manchester Hymnal, the hymn in the Nauvoo hymnal included music composed by Taylor.^[1]

On the afternoon that Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed by a mob in prison in Carthage, Illinois, the Smiths had requested that Taylor sing the hymn twice.^[2]

After he became president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), Taylor asked Ebenezer Beesley to compose new music for the hymn.^[1] The results were published in the church’s 1889 hymnal, and the hymn has been included in every subsequent edition of the church’s hymnal.^[1] In the LDS Church’s 1985 English-language hymnal, it is hymn #29.^[3]

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