Almighty God, in humble prayer

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Almighty God, in humble prayer

Author: James Montgomery
Published in 104 hymnals

Piano/Organ
	Final Flourishes, Vol. 2

Representative Text

Almighty God, in humble prayer,
To Thee our souls we lift,
Do Thou our waiting minds prepare
For Thy most needful gift.

We ask not golden streams of wealth,
Along our path to flow,
We ask not undecaying health,
Nor length of years below.

We ask not honours which an hour
May bring or take away;
We ask not pleasure, pomp, or power,
Lest we should go astray.

We ask for wisdom:--Lord, impart
The knowledge how to live;
A wise and understanding heart
To all before Thee give.

75
For we, like children, born in sin
Know not till Thou hast taught,
How to go out, or how come in,
By word, or deed, or thought.

The young remember Thee in youth,
Before the evil days;
The old be guided by Thy truth
In Wisdom's pleasant ways.

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Author: James Montgomery

Montgomery, James, son of John Montgomery, a Moravian minister, was born at Irvine, Ayrshire, Nov. 4, 1771. In 1776 he removed with his parents to the Moravian Settlement at Gracehill, near Ballymena, county of Antrim. Two years after he was sent to the Fulneck Seminary, Yorkshire. He left Fulneck in 1787, and entered a retail shop at Mirfield, near Wakefield. Soon tiring of that he entered upon a similar situation at Wath, near Rotherham, only to find it quite as unsuitable to his taste as the former. A journey to London, with the hope of finding a publisher for his youthful poems ended in failure; and in 1792 he was glad to leave Wath for Shefield to join Mr. Gales, an auctioneer, bookseller, and printer of the Sheffield Register newspap… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Almighty God, in humble prayer
Author:	James Montgomery
Meter:	8.6.8.6
Language:	English

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Notes

Almighty God, in humble prayer. J. Montgomery. [For Wisdom.] This hymn is in the "M. MSS.," but undated. It was published in Montgomery's Christian Psalmist, 1825, No. 498, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines and entitled "Solomon's Prayer for Wisdom." It is repeated, without alteration, in his Original Hymns, 1853, No. 70. In modern collections it is usually given in an abbreviated form, as in Windle's Metrical Psalter & Hymnal, No. 11, Harland's Church Psalter, No. 199, the American Sabbath Hymn Book, &c. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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