Behold the great eternal God

Representative Text

1 Behold the great eternal God,
Spreads everlasting arms abroad,
And calls our souls to shelter there.
Wonders of mingled power and grace,
To all his Israel he displays,
Guarded from danger, and from fear.

2 Thither my feeble soul shall fly,
When terrors press, and death is nigh,
And there will I delight to dwell:
On that high tower I rear my head,
Serene, nor knows my heart to dread,
Amidst surrounding hosts of hell.

3 The shadow of th' Almighty's wings
Composure unmolested brings,
While threatening horrors round me crowd;
In vain the storms of rattling hail
The walls of this retreat assail,
And the wild tempest roars aloud.

4 In louder strains my fearless tongue
Shall warble its victorious song,
My Father's graces to proclaim;
He bears his infant offspring on
To glory radiant as his throne,
And joys eternal as his name.

The Hartford Selection of Hymns from the most approved authors, 1799

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Author: Philip Doddridge

Philip Doddridge (b. London, England, 1702; d. Lisbon, Portugal, 1751) belonged to the Non-conformist Church (not associated with the Church of England). Its members were frequently the focus of discrimination. Offered an education by a rich patron to prepare him for ordination in the Church of England, Doddridge chose instead to remain in the Non-conformist Church. For twenty years he pastored a poor parish in Northampton, where he opened an academy for training Non-conformist ministers and taught most of the subjects himself. Doddridge suffered from tuberculosis, and when Lady Huntington, one of his patrons, offered to finance a trip to Lisbon for his health, he is reputed to have said, "I can as well go to heaven from Lisbon as from Nort… Go to person page >

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