Christ, of All My Hopes

Representative Text

1 Christ, of all my hopes the ground,
Christ, the spring of all my joy,
still in you may I be found,
still for you my pow'rs employ,
still for you my pow'rs employ.

2 Let your love my heart inflame;
keep your fear before my sight;
be your praise my highest aim;
be your smile my chief delight,
be your smile my chief delight.

3 Fountain of o'erflowing grace,
freely from your fullness give;
'til I close my earthly race,
may I prove it "Christ to live,"
may I prove it "Christ to live."

4 Firmly trusting in your blood,
nothing shall my heart confound;
safely I shall pass the flood,
safely reach Immanuel's ground,
safely reach Immanuel's ground.

5 Thus, O thus, an entrance give
to the land of cloudless sky;
having known it "Christ to live,"
let me know it "gain to die,"
let me know it "gain to die."

Source: Trinity Psalter Hymnal #447

Author: Ralph Wardlaw

Wardlaw, Ralph, D.D. This venerable and (in his generation) influential Scottish divine contributed twelve hymns to the praise of the Church Universal that are likely to live in a humble and useful way. As having so done, and besides edited several collections of hymns, he claims a place of honour in this work. Critically, and regarded as literature, his hymns have little of poetry in them; no "winged words" to lift the soul heavenward. They reflect simply and plainly the lights and shadows of everyday experiences of the spiritual life, rather than its etherialities and subtleties. His "Lift up to God the voice of praise " is the most widely known; and there is a certain inspiriting clangour about it when well sung; yet it is commonplace. H… Go to person page >

Notes

Christ, of all my hopes the ground. R. Wardlaw. [Christ All, and in all. ] This hymn appeared in the Supplement which he appended to the 5th edition of his Selection of Hymns, &c. (1st ed., 1803), in 1817, No. 458, in two parts, the 2nd part beginning," When with wasting sickness worn." Pt. i. is in 6 stanzas, and Pt. ii. in 7 stanzas of 4 lines. Both parts have been adopted in Great Britain and America. In the latter, however the most popular form of the hymn is a cento composed of stanzas i., vi., x.-xiii., as in Dr. Hatfield's Church Hymn Book, N.Y., 1872, No. 896; or the same cento reduced to 4 stanzas of 4 lines, as in several collections.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

HENDON (Malan)

HENDON was composed by Henri A. Cesar Malan (b. Geneva, Switzerland, 1787; d. Vandoeuvres, Switzerland, 1864) and included in a series of his own hymn texts and tunes that he began to publish in France in 1823, and which ultimately became his great hymnal Chants de Sion (1841). HENDON is thought to…

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Rejoice in the Lord #455

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Trinity Psalter Hymnal #447

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