Now may fervent prayer arise

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Now may fervent prayer arise

Author: John Newton
Tune: ALCESTER (Wesley)
Published in 21 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, Noteworthy Composer
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 Now may fervent prayer arise
Winged with faith, and pierce the skies;
Fervent prayer shall bring us down
Gracious answers from the throne.

2 Bless, O Lord, the opening year
To each soul assembled here;
Clothe Thy Word with power divine,
Make us willing to be Thine.

3 Shepherd of Thy blood bought sheep!
Teach the stony heart to weep;
Let the blind have eyes to see,
See themselves, and look on Thee!

4 Let the minds of all our youth
Feel the force of sacred truth;
While the Gospel call they hear
May they learn to love and fear!

5 Show them what their ways have been,
Show them the desert of sin;
Then Thy dying love reveal,
This shall melt a heart of steel.

6 Where thou hast Thy work begun,
Give new strength the race to run;
Scatter darkness, doubts and fears,
Wipe away the mourners’ tears.

7 Bless us all, both old and young;
Call forth praise from every tongue;
Let the whole assembly prove
All Thy power, and all Thy love!

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #11799

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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:	Now may fervent prayer arise
Author:	John Newton
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Now may fervent prayer arise. J. Newton. [New Year.] The third of thirteen "Hymns before Annual Sermons to Young People on New Years' Evenings," published in the Olney Hymns, 1779, Bk. ii., No. 9, in 7 stanzas of 6 lines. It is in common use both in the original and in the following forms:—
1. Bless, 0 bless the opening year.
2. Bless, 0 Lord the opening year.
3. Bless 0 Lord this opening year.
4. Bless 0 Lord each opening year.
These forms of the text generally embrace stanzas ii., iii., vi., vii., and are in use in Great Britain and America.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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