"Father! Thy will, not mine, be done!"
So pray'd on earth Thy suffering Son;
So, in His Name I pray:
The spirit fails, the flesh is weak;
Thy help in agony I seek;
O! take this cup away.
If such be not Thy Sovereign will,
Thy wiser purpose then fulfill;
My wishes I resign,
Into Thine hands my soul commend
On Thee for life or death depend;
Thy will be done, not mine.
Sacred Poems and Hymns
First Line: | Father! Thy will, not mine, be done |
Author: | James Montgomery |
Meter: | 8.8.6.8.8.6 |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
Father, Thy will, not mine, be done. J. Montgomery. [Resignation.] This hymn is said in the “M. MSS." to have been written at Oakbrook, Derbyshire (a Moravian settlement), in 1841. It was given in Montgomery's Original Hymns, 1853, in 2 stanzas of 6 lines, and entitled "In Affliction." It is in several collections both in Great Britain and America.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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Father, Thy will, not mine, be done, p. 372, i. Concerning this hymn, the late Mrs. Rawson of Wincobank Hall, Sheffield, communicated to us on Sep. 16, 1876, the following details:—"Of one other hymn I can give you the history, ‘Father! Thy will, not mine, be done.' My beloved husband, William B. Rawson, went to Paradise on July 19, 1829, aged 28. When Montgomery was here [Wincobank Hall] some time afterwards, he asked my dear mother about his last hours, and seemed much affected by hearing of his wonderful peace and resignation, for he had everything to make life desirable. My mother put into our friend's hand a short statement of the closing scene, which he took up with him when he retired for the night, and the next day we found these lines written in pencil on a fly-leaf of the manuscript." The reference at p. 372, i. is to the death of Ignatius, Montgomery's brother, at Oakbrook, April 27, 1841, when the hymn was revived by fresh and painful circumstances.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)