Behold, with pleasing ecstasy

Full Text

1 Behold with pleasing ecstasy
The Gospel standard lifted high,
That all the nations from afar
May in the great salvation share.

2 Why then, almighty Savior, why
Do wretched souls in millions die?
While wide th’infernal tyrant reigns
O’er spacious realms in ponderous chains?

3 And shall he still go on to boast
Thy cross its energy hath lost?
And shall Thy servants still complain
Their labors, and their tears are vain?

4 Awake, all conquering arm, awake,
And hell’s extensive empire shake;
Assert the honors of Thy throne,
And call this ruined world Thine own.

5 Thine all successful power display;
Produce a nation in a day;
For at Thy word this barren earth
Shall travail with a general birth.

6 Swift let Thy quickening Spirit breathe
On these abodes of sin and death;
That breath shall bow ten thousand minds,
Like waving corn before the winds.

7 Scarce can our glowing hearts endure
A world, where Thou art known more;
Transform it, Lord, by conquering love,
Or bear us to the realms above.

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #8194

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Author: Philip Doddridge

Doddridge, Philip, D.D., was born in London, June 26, 1702. His grandfather was one of the ministers under the Commonwealth, who were ejected in 1662. His father was a London oilman. He was offered by the Duchess of Bedford an University training for ordination in the Church of England, but declined it. He entered Mr. Jennings's non-conformist seminary at Kibworth instead; preached his first sermon at Hinckley, to which Mr. Jennings had removed his academy. In 1723 he was chosen pastor at Kibworth. In 1725 he changed his residence to Market Harborough, still ministering at Kibworth. The settled work of his life as a preceptor and divine began in 1729, with his appointment to the Castle Hill Meeting at Northampton, and continued till in the… Go to person page >

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Text Information

First Line: Behold, with pleasing ecstasy
Author: Philip Doddridge
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Notes

Behold with pleasing extacy. P. Doddridge. [Missions.] This hymn is No. 48 in the D. MSS., and dated "Oct. 30, 1737." It was published in Job Orton's edition of Doddridge's (posthumous) Hymns, 1755, No. 121, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, in a slightly different form, and entitled “A Nation born in a day; or the rapid progress of the Gospel desired", Is. lxvi. 8, and again in J. D. Humphreys's edition of the same, 1839. In its original form it has not come into common use: but stanzas iv. and v., beginning, "Awake, all conquering arm, awake," very slightly altered, were given in the American Baptist Psalmist, 1813, No. 857. Also in Spurgeon's Our Own Hymn Book, 1866, No. 962. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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Tune

OLD HUNDREDTH

This tune is likely the work of the composer named here, but has also been attributed to others as shown in the instances list below. According to the Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal (1992), Old 100th first appeared in the Genevan Psalter, and "the first half of the tune contains phrases which may ha…

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Media

The Cyber Hymnal #8194
  • PDF (PDF)
  • Noteworthy Composer Score (NWC)
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Instances

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The Cyber Hymnal #8194TextScoreAudio
Include 4 pre-1979 instances
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