O take away this evil heart

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O take away this evil heart

Author: James Montgomery
Published in 1 hymnal

Representative Text

O take away this evil heart;
This heart of unbelief renew;
So prone, so eager to depart
From Thee, the living God and true.

O crucify this carnal mind,
'Tis enmity, my God, to Thee;
I cannot love Thee, till I find
The mind that was in Christ in me.

O sanctify this sinful soul;
Health to the dying leper give;
Thou, if Thou wilt, canst make me whole;
Speak but the word, and I shall live.

O disenthrall this captive will,
(Free only when Thou mak'st it free,)
That I may glory to fulfil
Thy perfect law of liberty.

301
Then, though through life, a worm of earth,
In death returning to the clod,
I shall become, by second birth,
An heir of heaven, a child of God.

Sacred Poems and Hymns

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Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

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First Line:	O take away this evil heart
Author:	James Montgomery
Meter:	8.8.8.8
Language:	English

Psalm 16:4
(hymns)

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Notes

O take away this evil heart. J. Montgomery. [Lent.] Written Dec. 9, 1829 [M.MSS.] and published in his Original Hymns, 1853, No. 281, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, with the heading “O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my Soul." It is found in a few modern hymn-books.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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