1 Behold the gloomy vale,
Which thou, my soul, must tread,
Beset with terrors fierce and pale,
That leads thee to the dead.
2 Ye pleasing scenes, adieu!
Which I so long have known.
My friends, a long farewell to you!
For I must pass alone.
3 But see! a ray of light,
With splendours all divine,
Breaks through these dreary realms of night,
And makes its horrors shine.
4 Where death, where darkness reigns,
Jehovah is my stay:
His rod my trembling feet sustains,
His staff defends my way.
5 Great Shepherd! lead me on;
My soul disdains to fear.
Death's gloomy phantoms all are flown,
Now life's great Lord is near.
Source: A Collection of Hymns and A Liturgy: for the use of Evangelical Lutheran Churches; to which are added prayers for families and individuals #484
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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