The Repenting Prodigal

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Lo! what a rapturous joy possessed

Author: Benjamin Beddome (1769)
Published in 8 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Lo! what a rapturous joy possest
The tender parent's throbbing breast,
To see his spendthrift son return,
And hear him his past follies mourn.

2 Thus our bless'd Saviour wont despise
The contrite heart for sacrifice;
The deep-fetch'd sigh, the secret groan,
Rises accepted to his throne.

3 He meets, with tokens of his grace
The trembling lip, the blushing face;
His bowels yearn when sinners pray,
And mercy bears their sins away.

4 When fill'd with grief, o'erwhelm'd with shame,
He, pitying, heals their broken frame;
He hears their sad complaints, and spies
His image in their weeping eyes.

Source: The Hartford Selection of Hymns: from the most approved authors: to which are added a number never before published (2nd ed.) #LXV

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Author: Benjamin Beddome

Benjamin Beddome was born at Henley-in Arden, Warwickshire, January 23, 1717. His father was a Baptist minister. He studied at various places, and began preaching in 1740. He was pastor of a Baptist society at Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, until his death in 1795. In 1770, he received the degree of M.A. from the Baptist College in Providence, Rhode Island. He published several discourses and hymns. "His hymns, to the number of 830, were published in 1818, with a recommendation from Robert Hall." Montgomery speaks of him as a "writer worthy of honour both for the quantity and the quality of his hymns." --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872.… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Lo! what a rapturous joy possessed
Title:	The Repenting Prodigal
Author:	Benjamin Beddome (1769)
Meter:	8.8.8.8
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

This is a revised version of Benjamin Beddome's hymn, "The mighty God will not despise", published in 1769. This begins with Beddome's fourth stanza, "Thus what a rapturous joy possessed", followed by revisions of Beddome's stanzas one, two, and three.

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