Incarnate God, the soul that knows

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Incarnate God, the soul that knows

Author: John Newton
Tune: PARIS (Lonneke)
Published in 3 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, Noteworthy Composer
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 Incarnate God! the soul that knows
Thy name’s mysterious power
Shall dwell in undisturbed repose,
Nor fear the trying hour.

2 Thy wisdom, faithfulness and love,
To feeble, helpless worms
A buckler and a refuge prove,
From enemies and storms.

3 In vain the fowler spreads his net,
To draw them from Thy care;
Thy timely call instructs their feet
To shun the artful snare.

4 When like a baneful pestilence
Sin mows its thousands down
On every side, without defense,
Thy grace secures Thine own.

5 No midnight terrors haunt their bed,
No arrow wounds by day;
Unhurt on serpents they shall tread,
If found in duty’s way.

6 Angels, unseen, attend the saints
And bear them in their arms,
To cheer the spirit when it faints,
And guard the life from harms.

7 The angels’ Lord, Himself is nigh,
To them that love His name,
Ready to save them when they cry,
And put their foes to shame.

8 Crosses and changes are their lot,
Long as they sojourn here;
But since their Savior changes not,
What have the saints to fear

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #12584

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Author: John Newton

John Newton (b. London, England, 1725; d. London, 1807) was born into a Christian home, but his godly mother died when he was seven, and he joined his father at sea when he was eleven. His licentious and tumultuous sailing life included a flogging for attempted desertion from the Royal Navy and captivity by a slave trader in West Africa. After his escape he himself became the captain of a slave ship. Several factors contributed to Newton's conversion: a near-drowning in 1748, the piety of his friend Mary Catlett, (whom he married in 1750), and his reading of Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ. In 1754 he gave up the slave trade and, in association with William Wilberforce, eventually became an ardent abolitionist. After becoming a tide… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Incarnate God, the soul that knows
Author:	John Newton
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Incarnate God! the soul that knows. J. Newton. [Safety of the Believer.] Published in the Olney Hymns, 1779, Bk. i., No. 47, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed "The Believer's Safety. Psalm xci." It is in use in its original form, and also as, "O God most high, the soul that knows." This altered form of stanzas i., vi.-viii. was made by W. J. Hall for his Mitre Hymn Book, 1836, No. 83. Sometimes, as in the New Mitre, 1875, a doxology is added.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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