

1 Indulgent God! to Thee I raise
My spirit fraught with joy and praise:
Grateful I bow before thy throne,
My debt of mercy there to own.
2 Rivers descending, Lord! from Thee
Perpetual glide to solace me:
Their varied virtues to rehearse,
Demands an everlasting verse.
3 And yet there is, beyond the rest,
One stream--the widest and the best--
Salvation! Lo, the purple flood
Rolls rich with my Redeemer's blood.
4 I taste--delight succeeds to wo;
I bathe--no waters cleanse me so:
Such joy and purity to share,
I would remain enraptur'd there.
5 Till death shall give this soul to know
The fulness sought in vain below;--
The fulness of that boundless sea
Whence flow'd the river down to me.
6 My soul--with such a scene in view--
Bids mortals' joys a glad adieu;
Nor dreads a few chastizing woes
Sent with such love--so soon to close.
Source: A Collection of Hymns and Prayers, for Public and Private Worship #238
First Line: | Indulgent God, to thee I raise |
Author: | Thomas Coles |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
Indulgent God, to Thee I raise. T. Coles. [Praise for Salvation.] Included anonymously in the 10th edition of Rippon's Baptist Selection 1800,No. 299 (Pt. iii), in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed “Happy in the Salvation of God." In some copies of the 1827 edition of Rippon the blank is filled in with "Coles." After Dr. Rippon's death in 1836, three editions of his Selection appeared: (1) his original Selection as revised in 1827; (2) an edition published by Hall, Virtue & Co., which was a reprint of Rippon's 1800 edition with additions; and (3) The Comprehensive Rippon, 1844. In No. 2 this hymn is ascribed to "B. Francis" and in No. 3 to "Francis." That No. 1 in giving it to "T. Coles" is right is evident from a communication from B. F. Flint, grandson of B. Francis, to D. Sedgwick, dated "Jan. 26, 1859," in which he says " ‘Indulgent God, to Thee I raise’ ascribed to my Grandfather, is not his, but was written by the late Rev. Thomas Coles of Bourton."
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)