Departed Soul, Asleep

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Why flow these torrents of distress

Author: Philip Doddridge
Published in 18 hymnals

Representative Text

1 "Why flow these torrents of distress?"
(The gentle Savior cries)
"Why are my sleeping saints survey'd
"With unbelieving eyes?

2 "Death's feeble arm shall never boast,
"A friend of Christ's is slain;
"Nor o'er their meaner part in D=dust
"A lasting power retain.

3 "I come, on wings of love I come
"The slumberers to awake;
"My voice shall reach the deepest tomb,
"And all its bounds shall break.

4 "Touch'd by my hand, in smiles they rise;
"They rise, to sleep no more;
"But rob'd with light and crown'd with joy,
"To endless day they soar."

5 Jesus, our faith receives thy word;
And, tho' fond nature weep,
Grace learns to hail the pious dead,
And emulate their sleep.

6 Our willing souls thy summons wait
With them to rest and praise;
So let thy much-lov'd presence cheer
These separating days.

Source: A Selection of Hymns: from the best authors, intended to be an appendix to Dr. Watt's psalms and hymns. (1st Am. ed.) #DLXII

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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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