God of our lives, Thy constant care

Representative Text

1 The God of life, Whose constant care
with blessings crowns each opening year,
My scanty span doth still prolong,
And wakes anew mine annnual song.

2 Thy children, panting to be gone,
May bid the tide of time roll on,
To land them on that happy shore
Where years and death are known no more.

3 No more fatigue, no more distress,
Nor sin, nor hell, shall reach that place;
No groans, to mingle with the songs
Resounding from immortal tongues:

4 No more alarms from ghostly foes;
No cares to break the long repose;
No midnight shade, no clouded sun,
But sacred, high, eternal noon.

5 O long-expected year! begin;
Dawn on this world of woe and sin;
Fain would we leave this weary road,
And sleep in death, to rest with God.

Source: Hymnal: according to the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America #30

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: God of our lives, Thy constant care
Author: Philip Doddridge
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

God of my life, Thy constant care. P. Doddridge. [New Year.] First published in his (posthumous) Hymns, &c, 1755, No. 134, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed, "The possibility of dying this Year, Jeremiah xxviii. 16; For New Year's Day." In 1839 it was republished, with slight variations in the text, in J. D. Humphreys's edition of the Hymns, &c, No. 152. In Dr. Dale's English Hymn Book, 1874, No. 1174, stanzas i., iv.-vi., and in Common Praise, 1879, No. 325, stanzas i., iii., v., are given in each case as "God of our life, Thy constant care." An arrangement of stanzas ii.-v. also appeared in Cotterill's Selection, 1810, and later editions, as, "How many kindred souls are fled." This is repeated in a few modern collections.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

PILESGROVE


PENITENCE (Elven)


TRURO (Williams)

TRURO is an anonymous tune, first published in Thomas Williams's Psalmodia Evangelica, (second vol., 1789) as a setting for Isaac Watts' "Now to the Lord a noble song." Virtually nothing is known about this eighteenth-century British editor of the two-volume Psalmodia Evangelica, a collection of thr…

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The Cyber Hymnal #10115
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Instances

Instances (1 - 74 of 74)
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A Collection of Hymns and a Liturgy for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Churches #410

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A Collection of Hymns and a Liturgy #410

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A Collection of Hymns and A Liturgy #410

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A Collection of Hymns and Prayers, for Public and Private Worship #413

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship #CLVII

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Publick Worship #CLVII

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for the Sanctuary #623

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, for Social and Private Worship #426

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, for Social and Private Worship (Rev. ed. with supplement) #426

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A Collection of Psalms and Hymns #506

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A Collection of Sacred Song #31(H50)

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A Collection of Sacred Song #31(H50)

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A Selection of Hymns and Psalms for Social and Private Worship (2nd ed. Enl. and Imp.) #329

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A Selection of Hymns and Psalms for Social and Private Worship (6th ed.) #342

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A Selection of Hymns and Psalms, for Social and Private Worship. (11th ed.) #342

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A Selection of Hymns and Psalms #329

A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for Every Sunday ... Diocese of Quebec #d123

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A Selection of Psalms and Hymns #80c

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A Selection of Psalms with occasional hymns (Charleston hymnal) #H.XXIII

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A Selection of Sacred Poetry #506

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A Selection of Sacred Poetry #506

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Book of Worship (Rev. ed.) #546

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Book of Worship #546

Church Hymn Book . 3rd ed. #d155

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Church Poetry #170

Die Union Choral Harmonie #d57

Gospel Hymns #d141

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Hymnal and Canticles of the Protestant Episcopal Church with Music (Gilbert & Goodrich) #30

Hymnal of the Reformed Episcopal Church #d126

Hymnal of the Reformed Episcopal Church, adopted in General Council, Chicago, May 1879 #d313

Text

Hymnal #30

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Hymnal #30

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Hymns and Songs for the Sunday School #169

Hymns for Children and Young Persons. First Am. from the London ed. #d36

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Hymns for Christian Devotion #899

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Hymns for Christian Devotion #899

Hymns for Social and Private Worship, Altered to a Devotional Form #d36

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Hymns of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, as authorized by the General Convention #50

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Hymns Recommended for use in the Reformed Episcopal Church #100

Hymns Suited to the Feasts and Fasts of the Church ... #d31

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Hymns, Selected and Original, for Public and Private Worship #608

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Hymns, Selected and Original #608

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Hymns #608

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Hymns #608

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Hymns #608

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Hymns #608

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Selection of Hymns for the Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church #165

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Selections from the Psalms of David in Metre #H50

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The Baptist Psalmody #1088

The Christian Harmony #d105

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The Christian Melodist #498

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The Christian Psalmist; or, Watts' Psalms and Hymns #557

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The Church Hymnal with Canticles #30

TextScoreAudio

The Cyber Hymnal #10115

The Halifax Selection of Hymns #d147

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The Hymnal #30

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The Lecture-Room Hymn-Book #H50

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The Psalms and Hymns #85

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The Psalms of David #H75

The School Psalter #d255

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The Whole Book of Psalms #H.XII

Exclude 73 pre-1979 instances
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