O Lord, my God, in mercy turn

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O Lord, my God, in mercy turn

Author: Henry Kirke White
Published in 21 hymnals

Representative Text

1 O Lord, my God, in mercy turn,
In mercy hear a sinner mourn!
To thee I call, to thee I cry,
O leave me, leave me not to die!

2 O pleasures past, what are you now
But thorns about my bleeding brow?
Spectres that hover round my brain,
And aggravate and mock my pain.

3 For pleasure I have given my soul;
Now justice, let thy thunders roll!
Now vengeance smile--and with a blow,
Lay the rebellious ingrate low.

4 Yet Jesus, Jesus! there I'll cling,
I'll crowd beneath his sheltering wing;
I'll clasp the cross, and holding there,
E'en me, oh bliss!--his wrath may spare

Source: A Collection of Hymns and Prayers, for Public and Private Worship #184

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Author: Henry Kirke White

White, Henry Kirke, a gifted English poet who died early in life, was born in Nottingham, England, March 21, 1785. Very early he manifested a remarkable love for books and a decided talent for composition. But his parents were poor, and he was apprenticed in early boyhood to a stocking weaver, from which uncongenial servitude he escaped as soon as he could and began the study of law; but later he was converted and felt called to the ministry. The story of his conversion from deism to Christianity is briefly but beautifully told in the poem titled "The Star of Bethlehem." He entered St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1805 as a servitor; but died October 19, 1806, in the second year of his college course, when only twenty-one years of age. In… Go to person page >

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