Blest Jesus, Source of grace divine. P. Doddridge. [The Water of Life.] This hymn is No. 88 in the Doddridge manuscript, where it is undated. In J. Orton's edition of Doddridge's (posthumous) Hymns, &c, 1755, No. 221, it is given in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, with a text slightly differing from the D.MSS. It is also in J. D. Humphreys's edition of the same, 1839. Its most popular form is that given to it early in the century in some American Unitarian collections:— "Blest Spirit, Source of grace divine." In this form it is in the Unitarian Hymn [and Tune] Book, Boston, 18G8, and other hymnals.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Philip Doddridge (b. London, England, 1702; d. Lisbon, Portugal, 1751) belonged to the Non-conformist Church (not associated with the Church of England). Its members were frequently the focus of discrimination. Offered an education by a rich patron to prepare him for ordination in the Church of England, Doddridge chose instead to remain in the Non-conformist Church. For twenty years he pastored a poor parish in Northampton, where he opened an academy for training Non-conformist ministers and taught most of the subjects himself. Doddridge suffered from tuberculosis, and when Lady Huntington, one of his patrons, offered to finance a trip to Lisbon for his health, he is reputed to have said, "I can as well go to heaven from Lisbon as from Nort… Go to person page >
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