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1 Deathless principle, arise;
Soar, thou native of the skies;
Pearl of price, by Jesus bought,
To his glorious likeness wrought,
Go to shine before his throne,
Deck his mediatorial crown;
Go, his triumphs to adorn,
Born of God--to God return.
2 Burst thy shackles, drop thy clay,
Sweetly breathe thyself away;
Singing, to thy crown remove,
Swift of wing, and fired with love.
Shudder not to pass the stream;
Venture all thy care on him;
Him, whose dying love and power
Stilled its tossing, hushed its roar.
3 Saints in glory perfect made,
Wait thy passage through the shade;
Ardent for thy coming o'er,
See, they throng the blissful shore;
Mount, their transports to improve,
Join the longing choir above;
Swiftly to their wish be given,
Kindle higher joy in heaven.
Source: The Voice of Praise: a collection of hymns for the use of the Methodist Church #936
First Line: | Deathless spirit, now arise |
Title: | The Dying Believer |
Author: | Augustus Toplady |
Meter: | 7.7.7.7 |
Language: | English |
Refrain First Line: | Sign our pledge, now sign |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
Deathless principle, arise. A. M. Toplady, [ Death Anticipated.] This hymn first appeared in
“A Memoir of some Principal Circumstances in the Life and Death of the Rev. Augustus Montague Toplady, late Vicar of Broad Hembury, Devon. To which is added, written by himself, the Dying Believer's Address to his soul, and his own last Will and Testament. London, Pr. for J. Matthews, 1778, pr. 6d."
On p. 24 of this Memoir we read:
"The following soliloquy, written some years ago by Mr. Toplady upon the death of a valued friend, has been thought so apposite to himself in his own dying hour that it is presented without any further apology."
After a sentence referring to the Emperor Hadrian, and his poem, "Animula, vagula, blandula," &c, and a note embodying Pope's translation of Hadrian's "Animula”, &c, and of "Musculus Versus," the poem, "Deathless principle, arise" follows, in stanzas of irregular length. It was subsequently shaped into 6 stanzas of 8 lines, and in this form is given in D. Sedgwick's reprint of Toplady's Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1860, p. 165. In its full form it is found in many collections, both old and new, but usually for private use. In some American collections a cento is given beginning: “Deathless spirit, now arise," as in Dr. Hatfield's Church Hymn Book, N. Y., 1872, whilst in others, as Longfellow & Johnson's Unitarian Hymns of the Spirit, Boston, 1864, there is a second cento, "Burst thy shackles! drop thy clay! "
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)