A Safe Retreat

Representative Text

1 Dear Father, to thy mercy-seat
My soul for shelter flies:
'Tis here I find a safe retreat
When storms and tempests rise.

2 My cheerful hope can never die,
If thou, my God, art near;
Thy grace can raise my comforts high,
And banish every fear.

3 My great Protector and my Lord,
Thy constant aid impart;
Oh, let thy kind, thy gracious word
Sustain my trembling heart!

4 Oh, never let my soul remove
From this divine retreat!
Still let me trust thy power and love,
And dwell beneath thy feet.

Source: Laudes Domini: a selection of spiritual songs ancient & modern (Abr. ed.) #73

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 >

Text Information

First Line: My God, 'tis to Thy mercy seat
Title: A Safe Retreat
Author: Anne Steele (1760)
Language: English
Publication Date: 1760
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

My God, 'tis to Thy Mercy-seat. Anne Steele. [The Mercy-Seat.] First published in her Poems on Subjects chiefly Devotional, &c, 1760, vol. i. p. 133, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed: "Refuge and Strength in the Mercy of God." It was repeated in the 2nd edition of the Poems, &c., 1780, and in Sedgwick's reprint of her Hymns, 1863. It is in common use both in its original form and as "Dear Father, to Thy Mercy-seat." The latter form is chiefly in use in America.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Timeline

Instances

Instances (1 - 2 of 2)

The Baptist Hymnal #394

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The Cyber Hymnal #1220

Include 191 pre-1979 instances
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