O how distressing was the scene

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O how distressing was the scene

Author: Henry Alline
Tune: VIENNA (Holyoke)
Published in 1 hymnal

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Representative Text

O how distressing was the scene,
When soon I tho't to taOke my flight,
With but a flutt'ring breath between
My soul in everlasting night.

My wasting body rack'd with pain,
And ling'ring on the verge of death,
All helps to save my soul were vain,
Or yet to lengthen out my breath.

Source: Harmonia Americana: containing a concise introduction to the grounds of music; with a variety of airs, suitable fore divine worship and the use of musical societies; consisting of three and four parts #48

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Author: Henry Alline

Alline, Henry. (Newport, Rhode Island, January 14, 1748--January 28, 1784, Northampton, New Hampshire). Congregationalist/"New Light". In 1760 his family took up land near Hampden, Nova Scotia, far from any school or church; hence the spiritual experience which, in 1775, impelled him to begin preaching found him with the drive and magnetism, but without the solid grounding, of a Wesley or a Whitefield. His stress on the "new light," and the revival meetings which he conducted all over Nova Scotia had no connection with the American Revolution beyond coincidence in time; yet that was enough to alarm the authorities. He had sermons, tracts, and probably sheets of hymns printed at Halifax before the peace treaty of 1783 allowed him to cross th… Go to person page >

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