Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve. P. Doddridge. [Confirmation.] This hymn is not given in the "D. MSS." It was first published by J. Orton in his edition of Doddridge's Hymns, &c, 1755, No. 296, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled "Pressing on in the Christian Race." It was repeated in all subsequent editions of the Hymns, and also in Doddridge's Scripture Hymns, edited by J. Doddridge Humphreys, 1839. One of the earliest collections in which it is found is Ash and Evans's Bristol Collection, 1769, No. 281, with the omission of st. iv. ”That prize," &c. From that date it came into general use, sometimes in 4 stanzas, and again in 5 stanzas until it became widely known both in Great Britain and America. In modern collections it is held in greater favour by those of the Church of England than those of Nonconformists. Full original text in the New Congregational Hymn Book, No. 617, and the 4 stanza form unaltered, in Hymnal Companion, No. 452. In the latter collection the editor suggests that in Confirmation it be sung after the benedictory prayer, “Defend, O Lord, this Thy servant," &c. This 4 stanza arrangement has been rendered into Latin:—"Sursum, mens mea! Strenué," by the Rev. R. Bingham, and given in his Hymnologia Christina Latina, 1871, pp. 101-103. A slightly altered form of the hymn, as “Awake, our souls, awake from sloth" is given in a few hymnals, including Walker's Cheltenham Collection, 1855 and 1881.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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