Redeeming Love

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Come, Holy Ghost, inspire our songs

Author: Anne Steele
Published in 66 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Come, Holy Ghost, inspire my song
With thy immortal flame.
And teach my heart, and teach my tongue
The Saviour's lovely name.

2 The Saviour! O what endless charms
Dwell in the blissful sound!
Its influence ev'ry fear disarms,
And spreads sweet comfort round.

3 Here, pardon, life, and joys divine
In rich effusion flow,
For guilty rebels lost in sin,
And doom'd to endless woe.

4 O the rich depths of love divine!
O bliss, a boundless store!
Dear Saviour, let me call thee mine,
I cannot wish for more.

Source: A Collection of Evangelical Hymns #XLIX

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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:	Come, Holy Ghost, inspire our songs
Title:	Redeeming Love
Author:	Anne Steele
Meter:	8.6.8.6
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

Ephesians 3:18
(hymns)

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Notes

Come, heavenly love, inspire my song. Anne Steele. [Redeeming Love.] This poem of 39 stanzas of 4 lines appeared in her Hymns on Subjects chiefly Devotional, 1760, vol. i. p. 7 (2nd ed., 1780, vol. i. p. 7), and in Sedgwick's reprint of her Hymns, 1863, p. 4. From the poem the following centos are in common use:—
1. Come, heavenly love, inspire my song. This was given in the Bristol Collection of Ash and Evans, 1769, No. 129; repeated by R. Conyers, in his Collection, 1772, and again by others to modern hymnals. It is composed of stanzas 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 37 and 39.
2. Come, Holy Ghost, inspire our songs. This was given in the Uttoxeter Selection, 1805; and repeated in Cotterill's Selection, 1810-19, and from thence has passed into a few collections in Great Britain and America. It is composed of stanzas 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, slightly altered from the original, and an added stanza probably by Cotterill.
3. Come, heavenly Dove, inspire my song. This is in the American Evangelical Hymnal, by Hall and Lasar, N. Y., 1880, stanzas 1, 2, 3, 8, 32, 33, 37, and 39 being included therein.
4. Come, Holy Spirit, guide my song. This is composed of stanzas i., ii.. vii. and xxxvii. slightly altered. It is No. 63 in Windle's Collection.
5. The Saviour, 0 what endless charms. This cento in Snepp's Songs of Grace & Glory, 1872, No. 174, is composed of stanzas 2, 3, 8, 37, and 39.