Dead in Trespasses and Sins

Representative Text

1 How helpless guilty nature lies,
Unconscious of its load!
The heart unchanged can never rise
To happiness and God.

2 Can aught beneath a power divine
The stubborn will subdue?
’Tis Thine, Almighty Saviour, Thine,
To form the heart anew.

3 ’Tis Thine the passions to recall,
And upwards bid them rise;
And make the scales of error fall
From reason’s darkened eyes.

4 To chase the shades of death away,
And bid the sinner live,
A beam of heaven, a vital ray,
’Tis Thine alone to give.

5 O change these wretched hearts of ours,
And give them life divine!
Then shall our passions and our powers,
Almighty Lord, be Thine.

Amen.

Source: The Hymnal and Order of Service #412

Author: Anne Steele

Anne Steele was the daughter of Particular Baptist preacher and timber merchant William Steele. She spent her entire life in Broughton, Hampshire, near the southern coast of England, and devoted much of her time to writing. Some accounts of her life portray her as a lonely, melancholy invalid, but a revival of research in the last decade indicates that she had been more active and social than what was previously thought. She was theologically conversant with Dissenting ministers and "found herself at the centre of a literary circle that included family members from various generations, as well as local literati." She chose a life of singleness to focus on her craft. Before Christmas in 1742, she declined a marriage proposal from contemporar… Go to person page >

Tune

BALERMA (Barthélemon)


MONSON


DENNIS (Nägeli)

Lowell Mason (PHH 96) arranged DENNIS and first published it in The Psaltery (1845), a hymnal he compiled with George. Webb (PHH 559). Mason attributed the tune to Johann G. Nageli (b. Wetzikon, near Zurich, Switzerland, 1773; d. Wetzikon, 1836) but included no source reference. Nageli presumably pu…

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Timeline

Media

The Cyber Hymnal #2580
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Instances

Instances (1 - 3 of 3)

The Baptist Hymnal #198

Ambassador Hymnal #427

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The Cyber Hymnal #2580

Include 225 pre-1979 instances
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