1 Sov'reign of life, I own thy hand
In ev'ry chast'ning stroke;
And while I smart beneath thy rod,
Thy presence I invoke.
2 To thee in my distress I cried,
And thou hast bow'd thy ear;
Thy pow'rful word prolong'd my life,
And brought salvation near.
3 Unfold, ye gates of righteousness,
That, with the pious throng,
I may record my solemn vows,
And tune my grateful song.
4 Praise to the Lord, whose gentle hand
Renews our lab'ring breath:
Praise to the Lord, who makes his saints
Triumphant e'en in death.
5 My God, in thine appointed hour
Those heav'nly gates display,
Where pain and sin, and fear and death
For ever flee away.
6 There, while the nations of the bless'd,
With raptures bow around;
My anthems to deliv'ring grace,
In sweeter strains shall sound.
Source: A Collection of Hymns and A Liturgy: for the use of Evangelical Lutheran Churches; to which are added prayers for families and individuals #441
Philip Doddridge (b. London, England, 1702; d. Lisbon, Portugal, 1751) belonged to the Non-conformist Church (not associated with the Church of England). Its members were frequently the focus of discrimination. Offered an education by a rich patron to prepare him for ordination in the Church of England, Doddridge chose instead to remain in the Non-conformist Church. For twenty years he pastored a poor parish in Northampton, where he opened an academy for training Non-conformist ministers and taught most of the subjects himself. Doddridge suffered from tuberculosis, and when Lady Huntington, one of his patrons, offered to finance a trip to Lisbon for his health, he is reputed to have said, "I can as well go to heaven from Lisbon as from Nort… Go to person page >
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