1 Sov'reign of life! before thine eye,
Lo, mortal men by thousands die!
One glance from thee at once brings down
The proudest brown that wears a crown!
2 Banish'd at once from human sight,
To the dark grave's unchanging night,
Imprison'd in that dusty bed,
We hide our solitary head.
3 The friendly band no more shall greet,
(Accents familiar once, and sweet!)
No more the well-known features trace,
No more renew the fond embrace.
4 Yet, if our Father's faithful hand
Conduct us thro' this gloomy land,
Our souls with pleasure shall obey,
And follow where he leads the way.
5 He, nobler friends than here we leave,
In brighter, surer worlds, can give;
Or, by the beamings of his eye,
A lost creation well supply.
Source: A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Publick Worship #CXL
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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