The Agony

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Jesus, while he dwelt below

Author: Joseph Hart
Published in 29 hymnals

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Representative Text

1 Jesus, while he dwelt below,
As divine historians say,
To a place would often go,
Near to Kedron’s brook it lay;
In this place he loved to be,
And ’twas named Gethsemane.

2 Came at length the dreadful night,--
Vengeance, with its iron rod,
Stood, and with collected might
Bruised the harmless Lamb of God:
See, my soul, thy Saviour see,
Prostrate in Gethsemane.

3 View him in that olive press,
Wrong with anguish, whelmed in blood;
Hear him pray, in his distress,
With strong cries and tears to God:
Then reflect what sin must be,
Gazing on Gethsemane.

Source: Laudes Domini: a selection of spiritual songs ancient and modern #402

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Author: Joseph Hart

Hart, Joseph, was born in London in 1712. His early life is involved in obscurity. His education was fairly good; and from the testimony of his brother-in-law, and successor in the ministry in Jewin Street, the Rev. John Hughes, "his civil calling was" for some time "that of a teacher of the learned languages." His early life, according to his own Experience which he prefaced to his Hymns, was a curious mixture of loose conduct, serious conviction of sin, and endeavours after amendment of life, and not until Whitsuntide, 1757, did he realize a permanent change, which was brought about mainly through his attending divine service at the Moravian Chapel, in Fetter Lane, London, and hearing a sermon on Rev. iii. 10. During the next two years ma… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Jesus, while he dwelt below
Title:	The Agony
Author:	Joseph Hart
Meter:	7.7.7.7.7.7
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

John 18:2
(hymns)

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Jesus, while He dwelt below. J. Hart [Passiontide.] A descriptive hymn of great power on The Passion of Our Lord. It was published in Hart's Hymns, &c, 1759, No. 75, in 23 stanzas of 6 lines, and headed "Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with His disciples," John xviii. 2. The following centos have been compiled therefrom:—
1. “Jesus, whilst He dwelt below." Pt. i.
“Full of love to man's lost race." Pt. ii.
"There my God bore all my guilt." Pt. iii.
These centos were given in Snepp's Songs of Grace & Glory, 1872, No. 230.
2. "Jesus, while He dwelt below." Pt. i.
"Eden from each flowery bed." Pt. ii.
These were given in the Scottish Evangelical Union Hymnal, 1878, No. 34, and others.
3. "Comes once more the awful night."
In the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Church Hymns, 1871, this is very much altered from the original.
4. “Comes again the dreadful night."
In Whiting's Hymns for the Church Catholic, 1882. Also altered from Hart.
Through these various centos great use is made of this hymn.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Notes

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Tune

TOPLADY (Hastings)

DIX (Kocher)

An early form of the tune DIX was composed by Conrad Kocher (b. Ditzingen, Wurttemberg, Germany, 1786; d. Stuttgart, Germany, 1872). Trained as a teacher, Kocher moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, to work as a tutor at the age of seventeen. But his love for the music of Haydn and Mozart impelled him t…

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