The Breaker

Representative Text

1 The Breaker is gone forth in love,
With power and skill divine;
Descending from the realms above,
To quell his foes and mine.

2 In love to Zion, he has broke
The powers of death and hell;
And her from Sinai’s dreadful yoke
Has broken off as well.

3 Though death, and law, and sin agree
This Breaker to arrest,
He breaks their bonds, himself sets free,
With Zion on his breast.

4 He breaks his children’s hearts in twain,
And brings proud nature down;
The hearts he breaks he heals again,
And on them puts a crown.

5 [He breaks through every darksome cloud,
And shows his lovely face;
Which makes the sinner sing aloud,
“Salvation is of grace.”]

6 [He breaks the traps and gins that lie
To catch poor pilgrims’ feet;
And, when they stumble, makes them fly
To him, their safe retreat.]

7 He’ll break the strings of nature soon,
And bid the prisoner fly
Beyond the reach of sin and gloom,
His glory to enjoy.

Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #553

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Author: William Gadsby

Gadsby, William , was born in 1773 at Attleborough, in Warwickshire. In 1793 he joined the Baptist church at Coventry, and in 1798 began to preach. In 1800 a chapel was built for him at Desford, in Leicestershire, and two years later another in the town of Hinckley. In 1805 he removed to Manchester, becoming minister of a chapel in Rochdale Boad, where he continued until his death, in January, 1844. Gadsby was for many years exceedingly popular as a preacher of the High Calvinist faith, and visited in that capacity most parts of England. He published The Nazarene's Songs, being a composition of Original Hymns, Manchester, 1814; and Hymns on the Death of the Princess Charlotte, Manchester, 1817. In 1814 he also published A Selection of Hymn… Go to person page >

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