Whitsunday

Representative Text

1 When the blest day of Pentecost
Was fully come, the Holy Ghost
Descended from above,
Sent by the Father and the Son,
To bring immortal blessings down,
And shed abroad God’s love.

2 Sudden a rushing wind they hear;
And fiery cloven tongues appear;
And sat on every one;
Cloven, perhaps, to be a sign,
That God no longer would confine
His word to Jews alone.

3 And were these first disciples blessed
With heavenly gifts? And shall the rest
Be passed unheeded by?
What! has the Holy Ghost forgot
To quicken souls that Christ has bought,
And lets them lifeless lie?

4 No, thou Almighty Paraclete,
Thou shedd’st thy heavenly influence yet,
Thou visit’st sinners still;
The breath of life, thy quickening flame,
Thy power, thy Godhead, still the same,
We own, because we feel.

Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #715

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Author: J. Hart

Hart, Joseph, was born in London in 1712. His early life is involved in obscurity. His education was fairly good; and from the testimony of his brother-in-law, and successor in the ministry in Jewin Street, the Rev. John Hughes, "his civil calling was" for some time "that of a teacher of the learned languages." His early life, according to his own Experience which he prefaced to his Hymns, was a curious mixture of loose conduct, serious conviction of sin, and endeavours after amendment of life, and not until Whitsuntide, 1757, did he realize a permanent change, which was brought about mainly through his attending divine service at the Moravian Chapel, in Fetter Lane, London, and hearing a sermon on Rev. iii. 10. During the next two years ma… Go to person page >

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