1 Sovereign of all the worlds on high,
Allow my humble claim;
Nor, while a worm would raise their head,
Disdain a Father’s name.
2 My Father God! How sweet the sound!
How tender, and how dear!
Not all the harmony of heaven
Could so delight the ear.
3 Come, sacred spirit, seal the name
On my expanding heart;
And shew, that in Jehovah’s grace
I share a filial part.
4 Cheer'd by a signal so divine,
Unwavering I believe;
And Abba, Father, humbly cry,
Nor can thy sign deceive.
Source: A Collection of Evangelical Hymns #LXXVI
First Line: | Sovereign of all the worlds on high |
Title: | Witness of Adoption |
Author: | Philip Doddridge |
Meter: | 8.6.8.6 |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
Sovereign of all the worlds on high. P. Doddridge. [Adoption.] This is No. 78 in the D. MSS., in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, is headed, "Adoption argued from a filial temper, on Gal. iv. 6," and is dated "June 17, 1739." It was repeated, without alteration, in Job Orton's posthumous edition of Doddridge's Hymns, &c, 1755, No. 281, but with the title changed to "A filial Temper the Work of the Spirit, and a proof of Adoption. Gal. iv. 6." In J. D. Humphreys's edition of the same, 1839, No. 307, the 1755 heading is repeated, but the text is changed in stanzas iv. 1. 3, from "Thou know'st, I Abba, Father, cry," to "And thus, I Abba, Father, cry." It is in common use in its original form, and as, “ My Father God! how sweet the sound" (stanzas ii.).
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)