Recovery From Sickness

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My God, thy service well demands

Author: Philip Doddridge
Published in 98 hymnals

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Representative Text

1 My God, thy service well demands
The remnant of my days;
Why was this fleeting breath renew'd,
But to renew thy praise?

2 Thine arms of everlasting love
Did this weak frame sustain;
When life was hov'ring o'er the grave,
And nature sunk with pain.

3 Thou, when the pains of death were felt,
Didst chase the fears of hell;
And teach my pale and quiv'ring lips
Thy matchless grace to tell.

4 Calmly I bow'd my fainting head
On thy dear faithful breast;
Pleas'd to obey my Father's call
To his eternal rest.

5 Into thy hands, my Savior God,
Did I my soul resign:
In firm dependence on that truth,
Which made salvation mine.

6 Back from the borders of the grave,
At thy command I come:
Nor will I urge a speedier flight,
To thy celestial home.

Source: A Collection of Hymns and Prayers, for Public and Private Worship #435

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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:	My God, thy service well demands
Title:	Recovery From Sickness
Author:	Philip Doddridge
Meter:	8.6.8.6
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

My God, Thy service well demands. P. Doddridge. [Thanksgiving for Recovery from Sickness.] In the D. MSS. this hymn is No. 55, is dated "Nov. 14, 1737," and headed,

"A Thought on recovery from Sickness in which much of the Presence of God had been experienced. Particularly intended for the use of Miss Nanny Bliss."

This heading is altered in Doddridge's handwriting to

"Thought on recovery from a dangerous sickness in which much of the presence of God had been experienced. Particularly intended for the use of a friend who had been in extreme danger by the bursting of an artery in her stomach."

It was included in Job Orton's posthumous edition of Doddridge's Hymn, &c, 1755, No. 364, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, as one of the "Hymns on Particular Occasions, and in Uncommon Measures." It is headed therein "On Recovery from Sickness, during which much of the Divine Favour had been experienced." In J. D. Humphreys's edition of the Hymns, &c, the text and heading as in Orton's ed. were repeated. When the nature of the sickness is remembered, the original manuscript is more intensely vivid than the printed text. In the manuscript stanza ii., lines 3, 4, read:—

"When life in purple torrents flowed From every gushing vein;"

stanza iii., 1. 3:—

" And teach me with my quivering lips;"

and stanza v., 1. 4:—

"That made salvation mine."

The special personal character of this hymn has limited its use. It might, however, be easily adapted for special or general thanksgiving after sickness.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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