All-sufficiency of Jesus

Representative Text

1 How tedious and tasteless the hours
When Jesus no longer I see!
Sweet prospects, sweet birds, and sweet flowers,
Have all lost their sweetness to me;
The midsummer sun shines but dim,
The fields strive in vain to look gay;
But when I am happy in Him,
December's as pleasant as May.

2 His name yields the richest perfume,
And sweeter than music His voice;
His presence disperses my gloom,
And makes all within me rejoice;
I should, were He always thus nigh,
Have nothing to wish or to fear;
No mortal so happy as I,
My summer would last all the year.

3 Content with beholding His face,
My all to His pleasure resigned,
No changes of seasons or place
Would make any change in my mind:
While blest with a sense of His love,
A palace a toy would appear;
And prisons would palaces prove,
If Jesus would dwell with me there.

4 Dear Lord, if indeed I am Thine,
If Thou art my sun and my song,
Say, why do I languish and pine,
And why are my winters so long?
O drive these dark clouds from my sky,
Thy soul-cheering presence restore;
Or take me to Thee upon high,
Where winter and clouds are no more.

Amen.

Source: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal #463

Author: John Newton

John Newton (b. London, England, 1725; d. London, 1807) was born into a Christian home, but his godly mother died when he was seven, and he joined his father at sea when he was eleven. His licentious and tumul­tuous sailing life included a flogging for attempted desertion from the Royal Navy and captivity by a slave trader in West Africa. After his escape he himself became the captain of a slave ship. Several factors contributed to Newton's conversion: a near-drowning in 1748, the piety of his friend Mary Catlett, (whom he married in 1750), and his reading of Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ. In 1754 he gave up the slave trade and, in association with William Wilberforce, eventually became an ardent abolitionist. After becoming a tide… Go to person page >

Tune

CONTRAST (German)

The tune most commonly known as CONTRAST is a German folk tune. In American shape-note tradition the tune is known as GREEN FIELDS or GREENFIELDS. J. S. Bach quoted it in his "Peasant Cantata," but he did not compose it. It has also been misattributed to Maria DeFleury and to Lewis Edson. Edson wrot…

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Timeline

Instances

Instances (1 - 11 of 11)
TextPage Scan

African American Heritage Hymnal #403

TextPage Scan

African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal #463

Audio

Small Church Music #6047

The "Connexion" and Jeremiah Ingalls Society Bicentennial Edition, 1805-2005 of The Christian Harmony, Or, Songster's Companion #6

TextPage Scan

The A.M.E. Zion Hymnal #523

The Baptist Hymnal #390

The New Harp of Columbia, Restored Edition #16

The Sacred Harp #82b

The Sacred Harp #127

Text

The Song Book of the Salvation Army #318

TextScoreAudio

The Cyber Hymnal #2642

Include 633 pre-1979 instances
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