Choosing the Better Part

Beset with snares on every hand

Author: Philip Doddridge
Published in 163 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 Beset with snares on every hand,
In life’s uncertain path I stand:
Saviour divine! diffuse Thy light,
To guide my doubtful footsteps right.

2 Engage this roving treacherous heart
Wisely to choose the better part;
To scorn the trifles of a day,
For joys that none can take away.

3 Then let the wildest storms arise;
Let tempests mingle earth and skies:
No fatal shipwreck shall I fear,
But all my treasures with me bear.

4 If Thou, my Jesus, still be nigh,
Cheerful I live, and joyful die:
Secure, when mortal comforts flee,
To find ten thousand worlds in Thee.

Source: Church Book: for the use of Evangelical Lutheran congregations #450

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 >

Text Information

First Line: Beset with snares on every hand
Title: Choosing the Better Part
Author: Philip Doddridge
Meter: 8.8.8.8
Source: Published posthumously in Hymns Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures, by Job Orton (J. Eddowes and J. Cotton, 1755)
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

Beset with snares on every hand. P. Doddridge. [Mary's choice.] This hymn is not in the Doddridge Manuscript. It was first published by J. Orton in the posthumous edition of Doddridge's Hymns, 1755. No. 207, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed "Mary's Choice of the Better Part;" and again in J. D. Humphreys's edition of the same, 1839. Although used but sparingly in the hymnals of Great Britain, in America it is found in many of the leading collections, and especially in those belonging to the Unitarians. The translation—-"In vitae dubio tramite transeo," in Bingham's Hymnologia Christiana Latina, 1871, p. 109—is made from an altered text in Bickersteth's Christian Psalmody, 1833.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Timeline

Media

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Instances

Instances (1 - 100 of 163)
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A Choice Selection of Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for the use of Christians #428

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A Collection of Hymns #354

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A Collection of Hymns and a Liturgy for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Churches #222

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A Collection of Hymns and a Liturgy #222

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A Collection of Hymns and A Liturgy #222

A Collection of Hymns for Public, Social and Domestic Worship #d88

A Collection of Hymns for Public, Social and Domestic Worship #d88

A Collection of Hymns for Public, Social, and Domestic Worship #d88

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A Collection of Hymns for Public, Social, and Domestic Worship #628

A Collection of Hymns from Various Authors. New ed. #d46

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A Collection of Hymns, for the Christian Church and Home #122

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Christian Worship #407

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Christian Worship (10th ed.) #407

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Christian Worship (6th ed.) #407

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Christian Worship. (3rd ed.) #407

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Christian Worship. (45th ed.) #407

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Christian Worship. 16th ed. #407

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Social and Private Worship #CCXXXVI

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for the Sanctuary #320

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, for Social and Private Worship #145

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns #340

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A Collection of Spiritual Hymns #745

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A New Selection of Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs #436

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A Selection of Hymns and Psalms for Social and Private Worship (6th ed.) #254

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A Selection of Hymns and Psalms, for Social and Private Worship. (11th ed.) #254

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A Selection of Hymns and Psalms #246

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A Selection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs #H.CCLXXXV

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A Selection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs #H.CCLXXXV

Text

A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #331

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A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors. #297a

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A Selection of Hymns #150

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A Selection of Hymns #CCXCVII

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A Selection of Hymns #60

A Selection of Hymns....3d ed #d33

A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for ... Diocese of Nova Scotia. 3rd ed. #d32

A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for the Use of the Diocese of Nova Scotia. 3rd ed. #d32

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A Selection of Psalms and Hymns, Embracing all the Varieties of Subjects #H64

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A Selection of Psalms and Hymns #129

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A Selection of Psalms and Hymns #CXXIX

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A Selection of Psalms and Hymns #129

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A Selection of Sacred Poetry #340

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A Selection of Sacred Poetry #340

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Baptist Hymn Book #a341

Canadian Sabbath-School Hymn Book #94

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Choice Hymns #109

Christian Psalms and Hymns to Aid in Public and Private Devotion #d107

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Church Book #450

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Church Book #450

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Church Choral-Book #97

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David's Harp #118

Grammar School Hymn Book #d33

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Hymn and Tune Book for the Church and the Home. (Rev. ed.) #550

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Hymn and Tune Book of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (Round Note Ed.) #526

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Hymn and Tune Book, for the Church and the Home #230

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Hymn Book for Christian Worship #593

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Hymn Book for Christian Worship. 8th ed. #a593

Hymn Book of the Colored M.E. Church in America #d60

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Hymn Book of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South #526

Hymnal of the Reformed Episcopal Church, adopted in General Council, Chicago, May 1879 #d30

Hymns and Psalms, Original and Modern, Selected and Revised #d57

Hymns and Spiritual Songs #d45

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Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Original and Selected, for the Use of Christians. (5th ed.) #B140

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Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Original and Selected, for the Use of Christians. (8th ed.) #b140

Hymns and Spiritual Songs. 1st Canadian ed. #d37

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Hymns for Christian Devotion #455

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Hymns for Christian Devotion #455

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Hymns for Church and Home #337

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Hymns for Church and Home #386

Hymns for Mothers #d9

Hymns for Public Worship in the Diocese of Fredericton. 2nd ed. #d15

Hymns for Schools and Families #d55

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Hymns for Schools and Families, Specailly Designed for the Children of the Church #229

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Hymns for Schools #295

Hymns for Social and Private Worship, Altered to a Devotional Form #d11

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Hymns for Social Worship #118

Hymns for Sunday Schools, Selected from Various Authoors #d32

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Hymns for the Christian Church, for the Use of the First Church of Christ in Boston #165

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Hymns for the Church of Christ (3rd thousand) #718

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Hymns for the Church of Christ. (6th thousand) #718

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Hymns for the Sanctuary #304

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Hymns for Youth, Suitable to be Used in Sabbath and Parochial Schools #103

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Hymns of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, as authorized by the General Convention #325

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Hymns of the Spirit #560

Hymns, Psalms, and Spiritual Songs, including Some Never Before in Print #d38

Hymns, Selected from Various Authors, for the Use of Young Persons #d23

Pages

Exclude 161 pre-1979 instances
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