1 Behold, from the desert of sin,
The world, and the curse of the law,
A fair one, whose garments are clean,
Does with her Beloved withdraw;
Retiring from thence, she appears
Dejected, and often complains,
Surrounded with sorrows and fears,
Yet on her Beloved she leans.
2 Thus up from the desert she goes,
Sustained both in fire and in flood;
Victorious, to vanquish her foes,
And all through the Lamb and his blood.
By faith she’s enabled to view
Fair Canaan’s delectable plains,
And faint, yet her course shall pursue,
When on her Beloved she leans.
3 [When darkness envelops her mind,
By faith she shall hold on her way;
And, in the sweet promise, shall find
Her strength shall suffice for the day;
No fiery afflictions shall burn
Beyond what his wisdom ordains,
But times of refreshing return,
When on her Beloved she leans.]
4 Her woes are permitted of God,
Her faith and her patience to prove;
The kiss, or a stroke of his rod,
Is all from immutable love.
By crosses and losses, at last
From self her affections he weans,
That on him her hopes may stand fast,
While on her Beloved she leans.
5 When foiled by the tempter, she goes
And makes the atonement her plea,
There pardon eternally flows,
And love wipes her sorrows away;
And when with her pardon she’s blessed,
Communion with Jesus she gains,
No longer a sinner distressed,
For on her Beloved she leans.
Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #334
Kent, John, was born at Bideford, Devonshire, Dec. 1766, and died Nov. 15, 1843. As a working shipwright his opportunities for acquiring the education and polish necessary for the production of refined verse were naturally limited. His hymns are strongly worded, very earnest and simple, and intensely Calvinistic. A few were published in Samuel Reece's Collection, 1799. The first edition of his Collection of Original Gospel Hymns, was published in 1803, and the 10th edition, with "The Author's Experience," in verse, 264 hymns, 15 longer pieces, and a Life by his Son in 1861. The Calvinistic teaching so prominent in his hymns has restricted their use to a limited number of collections. The greatest use made of them in modern hymnbooks has bee… Go to person page >
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