Lovest Thou Me? Feed My Lambs

Author: Philip Doddridge

Philip Doddridge (b. London, England, 1702; d. Lisbon, Portugal, 1751) belonged to the Non-conformist Church (not associated with the Church of England). Its members were frequently the focus of discrimination. Offered an education by a rich patron to prepare him for ordination in the Church of England, Doddridge chose instead to remain in the Non-conformist Church. For twenty years he pastored a poor parish in Northampton, where he opened an academy for training Non-conformist ministers and taught most of the subjects himself. Doddridge suffered from tuberculosis, and when Lady Huntington, one of his patrons, offered to finance a trip to Lisbon for his health, he is reputed to have said, "I can as well go to heaven from Lisbon as from Nort… Go to person page >

Do not I love Thee, O my Lord? P. Doddridge. [St. Peter's love of Christ.] This hymn is not in the D. MSS. It was first published in J. Orton's posthumous edition of Doddridge's Hymns, &c, 1755, No. 246, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines and headed, “Appeal to Christ for the sincerity of Love to Him." It is based on St. Peter's answer to Christ, "Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee." In 1839 it was repeated in J. D. Humphreys's edition of Doddridge's Hymns, &c. Its use in America is extensive.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)