Power from on high, O God, impart

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Power from on high, O God, impart

Author: James Montgomery
Published in 7 hymnals

Representative Text

Power from on high, O God, impart,
Power in thy gospel to believe;
Power to surrender our whole heart,
Power all thy mercy to receive.

The Word to us in vain were given,
We hear, we read, we learn in vain;
In vain thy Son came down from heaven,
If thou "the Spirit's might" restrain.

Here be His sacred influence felt,
With searching, cleansing, quickening force,
Till souls of millstone-hardness melt,
And flow like waters from their source.

Convinced and humbled in the dust
Beneath the burden of our guilt,
We own Thy law's dread sentence just,
But plead the blood of pardon spilt.

Thy Spirit witness with that blood,
And Christ our Saviour glorify;
While we, as children born of God,
With rapture, "Abba! Father!" cry.

Sacred Poems and Hymns

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Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

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