Praise

Representative Text

1 Awake, awake the sacred song
To our incarnate Lord;
Let ev'ry heart, and ev'ry tongue
Adore th’eternal word.

2 That awful word, that sov'reign pow'r,
By whom the worlds were made;
(O happy marn! illustrious hour!)
Was once in flesh array'd!

3 Then shone almighty pow'r and love
In all their glorious forms:
When Jesus left his throne above
To dwell with sinful worms.

4 To dwell with misery below,
The Saviour left the skies;
And sunk to wretchedness and woe,
That worthless man might rise.

5 Adoring angels tun'd their songs
To hail the joyful day;
With rapture then, let mortal tongues
Their grateful worship pay.

6 What glory, Lord, to thee is due!
With wonder we adore;
But could we sing as angels do,
Our highest praise were poor.

Source: Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs: selected and original, designed for the use of the Church Universal in public and private devotion #CVII

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Author: Anne Steele

Anne Steele was the daughter of Particular Baptist preacher and timber merchant William Steele. She spent her entire life in Broughton, Hampshire, near the southern coast of England, and devoted much of her time to writing. Some accounts of her life portray her as a lonely, melancholy invalid, but a revival of research in the last decade indicates that she had been more active and social than what was previously thought. She was theologically conversant with Dissenting ministers and "found herself at the centre of a literary circle that included family members from various generations, as well as local literati." She chose a life of singleness to focus on her craft. Before Christmas in 1742, she declined a marriage proposal from contemporar… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Awake, awake the sacred song
Title:	Praise
Author:	Anne Steele
Meter:	8.6.8.6
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Awake, awake the sacred song. Anne Steele. [Christmas.] First published in her Poems on Subjects chiefly Devotional, &c, 1760, vol. i. p. 85, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed "The Incarnate Saviour." It was also included in the 1780 edition of the Poems, and in D. Sedgwick's reprint of her Hymns, 1859. It came into common use by being adopted by Ash and Evans in their Bristol Collection, 1769, No. 88, from whence it passed into a few hymnals. It is still in use in America, and is given in Hatfield's Church Hymn Book, 1872, the Baptist Praise Book, 1871, and Songs for the Sanctuary, 1865, the first omitting stanza vi. and the remaining two stanza iv.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Notes

Awake, awake the sacred song. Anne Steele. [Christmas.] First published in her Poems on Subjects chiefly Devotional, &c, 1760, vol. i. p. 85, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed "The Incarnate Saviour." It was also included in the 1780 edition of the Poems, and in D. Sedgwick's reprint of her Hymns, 1859. It came into common use by being adopted by Ash and Evans in their Bristol Collection, 1769, No. 88, from whence it passed into a few hymnals. It is still in use in America, and is given in Hatfield's Church Hymn Book, 1872, the Baptist Praise Book, 1871, and Songs for the Sanctuary, 1865, the first omitting stanza vi. and the remaining two stanza iv.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Tune

DIVINITY (Funk)

CAMBRIDGE (Randall)

BRIDGMAN

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Timeline

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Arrangements

Store

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