Social Worship

How pleasant is the gate

Author: Joseph Swain
Published in 1 hymnal

Representative Text

1 How pleasant is the gate
Where willing converts wait
For fellowship with Zion here;
Where they with wonder tell
How they escaped from hell,
And hope in glory to appear.

2 With wonder we attend,
While they the sinner’s Friend,
With tears of holy joy, extol;
Each heart, once hard as steel,
Now made for sin to feel,
Bears tokens of a ransomed soul.

3 No more of self they boast,
But humbly own the cost
Of their salvation freely paid;
The sins which make them groan,
And must have sunk them down,
They now behold on Jesus laid.

Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #371

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Author: Joseph Swain

Swain, Joseph, was born at Birmingham in 1761, and after being apprenticed to an engraver, removed to London. After a time he became a decided Christian, and being of an emotional poetic temperament, began to give expression to his new thoughts and feelings in hymns. In 1783 he was baptized by the Rev. Dr. Rippon, and in 1791 became minister of a Baptist congregation in East Street, Walworth. After a short but popular and very useful ministry, he died April 16, 1796 Swain published the following:— (1) A Collection of Poems on Several Occasions, London, 1781; (2) Redemption, a Poem in five Books, London, 1789; (3) Experimental Essays on Divine Subjects, London, 1791; (4) Walworth Hymns, by J. Swain, Pastor of the Baptist Church Meeting… Go to person page >

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