Ye servants of the Lord

Author: Philip Doddridge

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 >

Ye servants of the Lord, Each in his office wait. P. Doddridge. [Christian Activity and Zeal.] Appeared in J. Orton's posthumous edition of Doddridge's Hymns, &c, 1755, No. 210, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed, "The active Christian"; and again in J. D. Humphreys's edition of the same, 1839, No. 234. It is in extensive use, and usually in its ori-ginal form. Sometimes, however, stanza v. 1. 3, “And raise that favourite Servant's head," is altered to "And raise that faithful servant's head."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)