Grace, 'tis a charming sound. P. Doddridge. [Salvation by Grace.] First published in his (posthumous) Hymns, &c, by J. Orton, in 1755, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, as follows:—
"cclxxxvi. Salvation by Grace. Eph. ii. 5.
1. Grace! 'tis a charming Sound,
Harmonious to my Ear!
Heav'n with the Echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear.
2. Grace first contriv'd a Way
To save rebellious Man,
And all the Steps that Grace display,
Which drew the wond'rous Plan.
3. Grace taught my wand'ring Feet
To tread the heav'nly Road,
And new Supplies each Hour I meet,
While pressing on to God.
4. Grace all the Work shall crown
Thro' everlasting Days;
It lays in Heav'n the topmost Stone,
And well deserves the Praise."
This text was repeated in J. D. Humphreys's edition of the Hymns, &c., 1839, with the change in stanza i., line 2, of "my ear," to "mine ear."
In his Psalms & Hymns, 1776, A. M. Toplady gave a cento as No. 134 which was thus composed:—
i. Doddridge, stanza i., with line2, "the ear" for "my ear."
ii. Doddridge, stanza ii.
iii. Toplady:—
" Twas grace that wrote my name
In Thy eternal book;
'Twas grace that gave me to the Lamb,
Who all my sorrows took."
iv. Doddridge, stanza iii., with, in line 1, "forc'd" for “taught."
v. Toplady:—
"Grace taught my soul to pray,
And made my eyes o'erflow.
'Twas grace which kept me to this day,
And will not let me go."
vi. Doddridge, stanza iv.
vii. Toplady:—
"O let Thy grace inspire
My soul with strength divine!
May all my powers to Thee aspire,
And all my days be Thine."
From the original, or from this cento, all modern versions of the hymn are derived, and their construction can be determined by collation with the texts as given above. The use of the hymn in various forms is very extensive in all English-speaking countries. It is sometimes given as "Grace! 'tis a joyful sound," as in Harland's Church Psalter & Hymnal, No. 282. Doddridge's text, slightly altered, is rendered into Latin as “Gratia, quain dulcis vox nostris auribus ilia!" in R. Bingham's Hymnologia Christiana Latina, 1871.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Doddridge, Philip, D.D., was born in London, June 26, 1702. His grandfather was one of the ministers under the Commonwealth, who were ejected in 1662. His father was a London oilman. He was offered by the Duchess of Bedford an University training for ordination in the Church of England, but declined it. He entered Mr. Jennings's non-conformist seminary at Kibworth instead; preached his first sermon at Hinckley, to which Mr. Jennings had removed his academy. In 1723 he was chosen pastor at Kibworth. In 1725 he changed his residence to Market Harborough, still ministering at Kibworth. The settled work of his life as a preceptor and divine began in 1729, with his appointment to the Castle Hill Meeting at Northampton, and continued till in the… Go to person page >
