Julian's account of J.E. Bode:
John Ernest Bode, M.A., son of William Bode, late of the General Post Office, born 1816, and educated at Eton, Charterhouse, and at Christchurch, Oxford, graduating B.A. 1837, and M.A. in due course. Being ordained in 1841, he became Rector of Westwell, Oxfordshire, 1847, and then of Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire, 1860. He was also for a time Tutor of his College and Classical Examiner. His Bampton Lectures were delivered in 1855. He died at Castle Camps, Oct. 6th. 1874. In addition to his Bampton Lectures, and Ballads from Herodotus, he published Hymns from the Gospel of the Day for each Sunday and Festivals of our Lord, 1860, and Short Occasional Poems, London. Longmans, 1858.
"O Jesus I (we) have promised to serve Thee to the end" (Confirmation) by J.E. Bode. Contributed to the 1869 Appendix to the S.P.C.K. Psalms and Hymns no. 395. It has been repeated in a great number of hymn books, and is very popular as a Confirmation Hymn.
Bode's hymn is no. 258 in 'Spiritual Songs'. It is a new hymn for the Little Flock Book.