The Lord, how tender is his love

Representative Text

1 The Lord! how tender is His love,
His justice how august;
Hence all her fears my soul derives,
There anchors all her trust.
He showers the manna from above,
To feed the barren waste;
Or points with death the fiery hail,
And famine waits the blast.

2 Crowns, realms, and worlds, His wrath incensed,
Are dust beneath His tread:
He blights the fair, unplumes the proud,
And shakes the learnèd head.
He bids distress forget to groan,
The sick from anguish cease,
In dungeons spreads His healing wing,
And softly whispers peace.

3 His vengeance rides the rushing wind,
Or tips the bolt with flame;
His goodness breathes in every breeze,
And warms in every beam.
Lord! grant that still with grateful heart
My years resigned may run;
’Tis Thine to give, or to resume,
And may Thy will be done!

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #9245

Author: Erasmus Darwin

Darwin, Erasmus, M.D., 1732-1802. Physician and poet, of Lichfield, author of The Botanic Garden , 1781, &c. He was a friend of Dr. Priestley's, and in sympathy with many of his views, although not permanently connected with any church. His hymn on God, the disposer of events, “The Lord, how tender is his love," is in Kippis, Martineau’s Hymns for the Christian Church and Home & Martineau’s Hymns of Praise and Prayer gives another hymn on Immortal Nature, “Roll on, ye stars, exult in youthful prime." --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)  Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: The Lord, how tender is his love
Author: Erasmus Darwin
Copyright: Public Domain

Tune

ELLACOMBE

Published in a chapel hymnal for the Duke of Würtemberg (Gesangbuch der Herzogl, 1784), ELLACOMBE (the name of a village in Devonshire, England) was first set to the words "Ave Maria, klarer und lichter Morgenstern." During the first half of the nineteenth century various German hymnals altered the…

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The Cyber Hymnal #9245
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The Cyber Hymnal #9245

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