Lovest Thou Me? Feed My Lambs

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Do not I love Thee, O my Lord?

Author: Philip Doddridge
Published in 319 hymnals

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Representative Text

1 Do not I love Thee, O my Lord?
Behold my heart, and see,
And turn each cursed idol out,
That dares to rival Thee.

2 Do not I love Thee from my soul?
Then let me nothing love;
Dead be my heart to ev’ry joy
When Jesus cannot move.

3 Thou know’st I love Thee, dearest Lord,
But O I long to soar
Far from the sphere of mortal joys,
And learn to love Thee more.

Source: The Sacred Harp: the best collection of sacred songs, hymns, odes, and anthems ever offered the singing public for general use (1991 rev.) #39a

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Author: Philip Doddridge

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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First Line:	Do not I love Thee, O my Lord?
Title:	Lovest Thou Me? Feed My Lambs
Author:	Philip Doddridge
Meter:	8.6.8.6
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Do not I love Thee, O my Lord? P. Doddridge. [St. Peter's love of Christ.] This hymn is not in the D. MSS. It was first published in J. Orton's posthumous edition of Doddridge's Hymns, &c, 1755, No. 246, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines and headed, “Appeal to Christ for the sincerity of Love to Him." It is based on St. Peter's answer to Christ, "Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee." In 1839 it was repeated in J. D. Humphreys's edition of Doddridge's Hymns, &c. Its use in America is extensive.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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