Rising to God

Representative Text

1. Now let our souls, on wings sublime,
Rise from the vanities of time:
Draw back the parting vail and see
The glories of eternity.

2. Born by a new celestial birth,
Why should we grovel here on earth?
Why grasp at transitory toys,
So near to heav'n's eternal joys?

3. Shall aught beguile us on the road,
When we are walking back to God?
For strangers into life we come,
And dying is but going home.

4. Welcome sweet hour of full discharge,
That sets our longing souls at large:
Unbinds our chains, breaks up our cell,
And gives us with our God to dwell.

5. To dwell with God, to feel his love,
Is the full heav'n enjoyed above;
And the sweet expectation now,
Is the young dawn of heav'n below.


Source: The Harmonia Sacra: a compilation of genuine church music : comprising a great variety of metres, harmonized for four voices : together with a copious explication of the principles ...(25th ed.) #54A

Author: Thomas Gibbons

Gibbons, Thomas, was born at Beak, near Newmarket, May 31, 1720; educated by Dr. Taylor, at Deptford; ordained in 1742, as assistant to the Rev. Mr. Bures, at Silver Street Chapel, London; and in 1743 became minister of the Independent Church, at Haberdashers' Hall, where he remained till his death, Feb. 22, 1785. In addition to his ministerial office he became, in 1754, tutor of the Dissenting Academy at Mile End, London; and, in 1759, Sunday evening lecturer at Monkwell Street. In 1760 the College at New Jersey, U.S., gave him the degree of M.A. and in 1764 that of Aberdeen the degree of D.D. His prose works were (1) Calvinism and Nonconformity defended, 1740; (2) Sermons on various subjects, 1762; (3) Rhetoric, 1767; (4) Female Worthies,… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Now let our souls, on wings sublime
Title: Rising to God
Author: Thomas Gibbons
Meter: 8.8.8.8
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Tune

DUKE STREET

First published anonymously in Henry Boyd's Select Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (1793), DUKE STREET was credited to John Hatton (b. Warrington, England, c. 1710; d, St. Helen's, Lancaster, England, 1793) in William Dixon's Euphonia (1805). Virtually nothing is known about Hatton, its composer,…

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GRIMKE


ANVERN


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The Cyber Hymnal #4557
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The Cyber Hymnal #4557

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The Harmonia Sacra #54A

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