Afflicted soul, to Jesus dear. J. Fawcett. [Support in Affliction.] First published in his Hymns adapted to the circumstances of Public and Private Devotions, 1782, No. 13, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines. In its original form it is rarely found in common use. An altered and abbreviated form, beginning "Afflicted Saint, to Christ draw near," was given by Rippon in his Baptist Selections, 1787, in 6 stanzas, and later editions. This was repeated by Cotterill in his Selections, 1810, No. 50, and again in the 8th edition 1819, No. 165, in 5 stanzas, representing st. i., iii., v., vi. and vii. of the original. This is the arrangement which has come into common use in Great Britain and America, sometimes as Afflicted Saint, to God,” &c. Orig. text in Lyra Brittanica 1867, p. 225.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
An orphan at the age of twelve, John Fawcett (b. Lidget Green, Yorkshire, England, 1740; d. Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, 1817) became apprenticed to a tailor and was largely self-educated. He was converted by the preaching of George Whitefield at the age of sixteen and began preaching soon thereafter. In 1765 Fawcett was called to a small, poor, Baptist country church in Wainsgate, Yorkshire. Seven years later he received a call from the large and influential Carter's Lane Church in London, England. Fawcett accepted the call and preached his farewell sermon. The day of departure came, and his family's belongings were loaded on carts, but the distraught congregation begged him to stay. In Singers and Songs of the Church (1869), Josiah Miller te… Go to person page >
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