Steadfast Reliance Upon the Promises

Representative Text

1 Away, my needless fears
And doubts no longer mine!
A ray of heavenly light appears,
A messenger divine.

2 Thrice comfortable hope,
That calms my stormy breast;
My Father's hand prepares the cup,
And what He wills is best.

3 He knows whate'er I want;
He sees my helplessness,
And always readier is to grant
Than I to ask His grace.

4 My fearful heart He reads,
Secures my soul from harms,
And underneath His mercy spreads
Its everlasting arms.

5 Here is firm footing; here,
My soul, is solid rock,
To break the waves of grief and fear,
And trouble's rudest shock:

6 This only can sustain
When earth and heaven remove:
O turn thee to thy Rest again,
Thy God's eternal Love!

Source: Church Book: for the use of Evangelical Lutheran congregations #432

Author: Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepene… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Away, my needless fears
Title: Steadfast Reliance Upon the Promises
Author: Charles Wesley
Meter: 6.6.8.6
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

Away, my needless fears. C. Wesley. [Submission.] In Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1749, 55 hymns were given as "For Christian Friends," of which this was No. 35, in 10 stanzas of 8 lines. From this two centos have come into common use as follows:—
1. In the Supplement to the Wesleyan Hymn Book 1830, stanzas i., vii., and ix. were given in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, No. 675. This cento is also found in various collections of the Methodist bodies, and in the revised edition of the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 1875. No. 832.
2. In A. M. Toplady's Psalms and Hymns 1776, No. 75, and later editions, stanzas i.-v. and ix. were given with slight alterations, but this cento has almost entirely gone out of use. Original text in Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. v. p. 448.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

LISBON (Read)


RICHMOND (Everett)


DENNIS (Nägeli)

Lowell Mason (PHH 96) arranged DENNIS and first published it in The Psaltery (1845), a hymnal he compiled with George. Webb (PHH 559). Mason attributed the tune to Johann G. Nageli (b. Wetzikon, near Zurich, Switzerland, 1773; d. Wetzikon, 1836) but included no source reference. Nageli presumably pu…

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The Cyber Hymnal #9088

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