Here young and old, here great and small

Author: James Montgomery
Published in 1 hymnal

Representative Text

Here young and old, here great and small,
Here rich and poor together meet:
111
The Lord, the Maker of them all,
Gives audience from the Mercy-seat.

While faith may see Him eye to eye,
And guilt in vain would shun the light,
The hidden things of darkness lie
Naked and open to His sight.

Not as to others we may seem,
Who look but on the outward guise;
Or of ourselves we fondly dream,
A foolish people and unwise:--

But what we are in heart and soul,
His sin-abhorring eyes discern;
On Him we wait, the true, the whole
Sad secret of ourselves to learn.

Taught by His Son, may we believe
In Him our Father reconciled;
Led by His Spirit, each receive
His kingdom as a little child.

With reverence, then, and godly fear,
While prayer and praise our tongues employ,
O that we all may now draw near
To God, as our exceeding joy!

Sacred Poems and Hymns

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Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

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