Rain of Heaven

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As showers on meadows newly mown

Author: Thomas Gibbons
Published in 47 hymnals

Representative Text

1 As show'rs on meadows newly mown,
Jesus shall shed his blessings down,
Crown'd with whose life infusing drops,
Earth shall renew her blissful crops.

2 Lands that beneath a burning sky,
Have long been desolate and dry,
Th' effusions of his love shall share,
And sudden greens and herbage wear.

3 The dews and rains, in all their store,
Drenching the pastures o'er and o'er,
Are not so copious as that grace,
Which sanctifies and saves our race.

4 As in soft silence vernal show'rs
Descend and cheer the fainting flow'rs,
So in the secrecy of love
Falls the sweet infl'ence from above.

5 That heav'nly infl'ence let me find
In holy silence of the mind,
While ev'ry grace maintains it bloom,
Diffusing wide its rich perfume.

6 Nor let these blessings be confin'd
To me, but pour'd on all mankind,
Till earth's wild wastes in verdure rise,
And a young Eden bless our eyes.

Source: Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs: selected and original, designed for the use of the Church Universal in public and private devotion #LXX

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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 >

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First Line:	As showers on meadows newly mown
Title:	Rain of Heaven
Author:	Thomas Gibbons
Meter:	8.8.8.8
Source:	John Rippon's Collection, 1787
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

As showers on meadows newly mown. T. Gibbons. [Divine Influence.] Printed in 1784 as No. 28 in Bk. i. of his Hymns adapted to Divine Worship, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines. It is founded on Ps. lxxii. 6, and headed "The Divine Influences resembled to Rain." In 1787 Dr. Rippon included it in his Selection, No. 209. It was repeated in later editions, ancl from thence passed into many collections. In America specially it has long been in common use in various forms, the most popular being stanzas iv., v., vi., as:—"As, in soft silence, vernal showers"—sometimes altered to—"As when in silence, vernal showers." [William T. Brooke]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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