Invoking the Spirit

Representative Text

1 Come, Holy Spirit, come;
Let thy bright beams arise;
Dispel the darkness from our minds,
And open all our eyes.

2 Cheer our desponding hearts,
Thou heav'nly Paraclete;
Give us to lie with humble hope
At our Redeemer's feet.

3 Revive our drooping faith;
Our doubts and fears remove;
And kindle in our breasts the flames
Of never-dying love.

4 Convince us of our sin;
Then lead to Jesus' blood,
And to our wond'ring view, reveal
The secret love of God.

5 'Tis thine to cleanse the heart,
To sanctify the soul,
To pour fresh life in ev'ry part,
And new create the whole.

6 Dwell, therefore, in our hearts;
Our minds from bondage free;
Then we shall know and praise and love
The Father, Son, and Thee.

Amen.

Source: Trinity Hymnal #254

Author: Joseph Hart

Hart, Joseph, was born in London in 1712. His early life is involved in obscurity. His education was fairly good; and from the testimony of his brother-in-law, and successor in the ministry in Jewin Street, the Rev. John Hughes, "his civil calling was" for some time "that of a teacher of the learned languages." His early life, according to his own Experience which he prefaced to his Hymns, was a curious mixture of loose conduct, serious conviction of sin, and endeavours after amendment of life, and not until Whitsuntide, 1757, did he realize a permanent change, which was brought about mainly through his attending divine service at the Moravian Chapel, in Fetter Lane, London, and hearing a sermon on Rev. iii. 10. During the next two years ma… Go to person page >

Notes

Come, Holy Spirit, come, Let Thy bright beams, &c. J. Hart [Whitsuntide.] Contributed to his Hymns composed on Various Subjects, 1759, No. 4, in 9 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed, "To the Holy Ghost." One of the earliest to adopt it was Toplady, in his Psalms & Hymns, 1776, No. 237, with alterations which have come down to modern collections. This text is that usually adopted in Church of England hymnals. It is easily recognized by stanza i., lines 3, 4, which read:—

"Dispel the sorrow from our minds,
The darkness from our eyes,"

instead of—

"Dispel the darkness from our minds,
And open all our eyes,"

as in the original. Most of the American collections follow Toplady's text with slight variations, and abbreviations as in the Baptist Praise Book, N. Y., 1871; Songs for the Sanctuary, N. Y., 1865-72, &c. The abbreviated texts in the Irish Church Hymnal 1873; Dr. Hatfield's Church Hymn Book, 1872; Stowell's Psalms & Hymns, 1831 and 1877, and others, are from the original. No. 151, in the Mitre, 1836, is a cento, stanzas i., ii. being from this hymn, and iii., iv. from C. Wesley's "Spirit of faith, come down," in each case with alteration. Full original text in Lyra Britannica 1867, p. 273.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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The Cyber Hymnal #823
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Instances

Instances (1 - 5 of 5)

Church Hymnal, Mennonite #156

The Baptist Hymnal #206

The Christian Harmony #25A

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The Cyber Hymnal #823

The Irish Presbyterian Hymbook #460

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