Great God! in vain man's narrow view

Representative Text

1 Great God, in vain man's narrow view,
Attempts to look thy nature through.
Our lab'ring pow'rs with rev'rence own,
Thy glories never can be known.

2 Not the high seraph's mighty thought,
Who countless years his God has sought,
Such wondrous height or depth can find,
Or fully trace thy boundless mind.

3 Yet, Lord, thy kindness deigns to show
Enough for mortal men to know;
While wisdom, goodness, pow'r divine,
Thro' all thy works and conduct shine.

4 O! may our souls with rapture trace
Thy works of nature and of grace,
Explore thy sacred truth, and still
Press on to know and do thy will!

Source: A Collection of Hymns and Prayers, for Public and Private Worship #4

Author: Andrew Kippis

Kippis, Andrew, D.D., was born at Nottingham, March 28,1725, and educated for the ministry under Dr. Doddridge at Northampton, 1741-46. After a short residence with congregations at Boston and Dorking, he settled in London in 1753, as minister of the Princes Street Chapel, Westminster. There lie remained till his death in 1795, holding rank as the leading Presbyterian minister in the metropolis. For many years he was classical tutor at the Hoxton Academy, and afterwards at the Hackney College. He contributed largely to the Gentleman's Magazine and the Monthly Review, and edited five volumes of a new edition of the Biographia Britannica, a work commenced in 1778, and interrupted by his death on Oct. 8, 1795. His Life of Captain Cook was also… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Great God! in vain man's narrow view
Author: Andrew Kippis
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Tune

DUKE STREET

First published anonymously in Henry Boyd's Select Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (1793), DUKE STREET was credited to John Hatton (b. Warrington, England, c. 1710; d, St. Helen's, Lancaster, England, 1793) in William Dixon's Euphonia (1805). Virtually nothing is known about Hatton, its composer,…

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OLD HUNDREDTH

This tune is likely the work of the composer named here, but has also been attributed to others as shown in the instances list below. According to the Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal (1992), Old 100th first appeared in the Genevan Psalter, and "the first half of the tune contains phrases which may ha…

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TRURO (Williams)

TRURO is an anonymous tune, first published in Thomas Williams's Psalmodia Evangelica, (second vol., 1789) as a setting for Isaac Watts' "Now to the Lord a noble song." Virtually nothing is known about this eighteenth-century British editor of the two-volume Psalmodia Evangelica, a collection of thr…

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Timeline

Media

The Cyber Hymnal #10179
  • PDF (PDF)
  • Noteworthy Composer Score (NWC)

Instances

Instances (1 - 87 of 87)
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A Collection of Hymns and a Liturgy for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Churches #29

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A Collection of Hymns and a Liturgy #29

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A Collection of Hymns and A Liturgy #29

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A Collection of Hymns and Prayers, for Public and Private Worship #4

A Collection of Hymns from Various Authors. New ed. #d119

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A Collection of Hymns, for the Christian Church and Home #51

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Christian Worship #89

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Christian Worship (10th ed.) #89

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Christian Worship (6th ed.) #89

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Christian Worship. (3rd ed.) #89

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Christian Worship. (45th ed.) #89

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Christian Worship. 16th ed. #89

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Social and Private Worship #XXXVII

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for the Sanctuary #185

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for the Use of Universalist Societies and Families 16ed. #96

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, for Social and Private Worship #186

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, for Social and Private Worship (Rev. ed. with supplement) #186

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns #95

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A Selection of Hymns and Psalms for Social and Private Worship (2nd ed. Enl. and Imp.) #83

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A Selection of Hymns and Psalms for Social and Private Worship (6th ed.) #84

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A Selection of Hymns and Psalms, for Social and Private Worship. (11th ed.) #84

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A Selection of Hymns and Psalms #83

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A Selection of Sacred Poetry #95

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A Selection of Sacred Poetry #95

Chapel Hymns #d185

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Christian Hymns for Public and Private Worship #151

Christian Psalms and Hymns to Aid in Public and Private Devotion #d296

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Church Choral-Book #89

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Church Harmonies #177

Church Music, a Collection of Hymn Tunes. #d49

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Deutsches Lieder- und Melodienbuch #a250

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Hymn and Tune Book for the Church and the Home. (Rev. ed.) #215

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Hymn and Tune Book, for the Church and the Home #149

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Hymn Book for Christian Worship #198

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Hymn Book for Christian Worship. 8th ed. #a198

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Hymns and Tunes #250

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Hymns for Christian Devotion #126

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Hymns for Christian Devotion #126

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Hymns for Christian Melody #21

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Hymns for the Christian Church, for the Use of the First Church of Christ in Boston #42

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Hymns for the Church of Christ (3rd thousand) #111

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Hymns for the Church of Christ. (6th thousand) #111

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Hymns for the Sanctuary #94

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Hymns, Selected and Original, for Public and Private Worship #19

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Hymns, Selected and Original #19

Hymns, Selected from Various Authors, for the Use of the Unitarian Church in Washington #d50

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Hymns #19

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Hymns #19

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Hymns #19

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Hymns #19

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Melodies and Hymns for Divine Service in Appleton Chapel #a73

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New Union Hymns #101

Prayers and Hymns for the Church and the Home #d215

Prison Hymn Book #d104

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Psalms and Hymns, for Christian Use and Worship #H55

Psalms and Hymns, for Social and Private Worship #d175

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Sacred Songs For Public Worship #9

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Sacred Songs For Public Worship #9

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The Baptist Psalmody #14

The Book of Praise #d235

The Christian Hymn Book #d214

The Christian Hymn Book. 7th ed. #d216

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The Christian Hymnal #41

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The Christian Psalmist #3

The Christian Psalter #d174

The Church Hymn Book #d312

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The Congregational Hymn Book #21

TextScoreAudio

The Cyber Hymnal #10179

The Gospel Hymnal #d194

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The Gospel Psalmist #83

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The New Congregational Hymn and Tune Book, for Public, Social and Private Worship #125

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The Psalmist #146

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The Psalmist #146

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The Psalmody #107

The Southern Psalmist #d255

The Southern Psalmist. New ed. #d264

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The Springfield Collection of Hymns for Sacred Worship #119

Universalist Hymn Book #d155

Exclude 86 pre-1979 instances
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