1 My gracious Redeemer I love,
His praises aloud I'll proclaim,
And join with the armies above,
To shout His adorable name.
To gaze on His glories divine,
Shall be my eternal employ,
And feel them incessantly shine,
My boundless, ineffable joy.
2 Yon palaces, scepters and crowns,
Your pride with disdain I survey,
Your pomps are but shadows and sounds,
And pass in a moment away.
The crown that my Savior bestows,
Yon permanent sun shall outshine;
My joy everlastingly flows,
My God, my Redeemer, is mine.
Francis, Benjamin , M.A., was born in Wales in 1734. He was baptized at the age of 15, and began to preach at 19. He studied at the Bristol Baptist College, and commenced his ministry at Sodbury. In 1757 he removed to Horsley (afterwards called Shortwood), in Gloucestershire. There he remained, through a happy and very successful ministry of 42 years, until his death in 1799. He was the author of many poetical compositions :—
(1) Conflagration, a Poem in Four Parts, (1770); (2) Elegies on the Deaths of the Revs. George Whitefield , Caleb Evans, Robert Day, and Joshua Thomas; (3) The Association, a Poem (1790); (4) a Poetical Address to the Stockbridge Indians (5) two satirical pieces on the Baptismal controversy; The Salopian Zealo… Go to person page >
The tune most commonly known as CONTRAST is a German folk tune. In American shape-note tradition the tune is known as GREEN FIELDS or GREENFIELDS. J. S. Bach quoted it in his "Peasant Cantata," but he did not compose it. It has also been misattributed to Maria DeFleury and to Lewis Edson. Edson wrot…
Display Title: My Gracious Redeemer I LoveFirst Line: My gracious Redeemer I loveTune Title: ELEZAuthor: Benjamin FrancisMeter: LMDSource: Rippon's Selections, 1787