While the stars unnumbered roll

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While the stars unnumbered roll

Author: Philip Doddridge
Published in 8 hymnals

Representative Text

While the stars unnumbered roll
Round the ever-constant pole,
Far above these spangled skies
All my thoughts to God shall rise.

From on high He shall impart
Secret comfort to my heart;
He in these serenest hours
Guide my spiritual powers.

He His spirit doth diffuse,
Sweeter far than midnight dews;
Lifting all my thoughts above,
On the wings of faith and love.

What if death my sleep invade;—
Should I be of death afraid?
Whilst encircled by Thine arm,
Death may strike, but cannot harm.

Visions brighter than the morn
Greet the deathless spirit born;
See, the guardian angel nigh
Waits to waft my soul on high!

With Thy heavenly presence blest,
Death is life, and labor, rest;
Welcome sleep or death to me,
Still secure, for still with Thee!

Source: A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion (15th ed.) #555

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Author: Philip Doddridge

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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