A Welcome to Christian Friends

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Kindred in Christ, for His dear sake

Author: John Newton
Published in 212 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, Noteworthy Composer
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 Kindred in Christ, for his dear sake,
A hearty welcome here receive;
May we together now partake
The joys which only he can give.

2 May he, by those kind care we meet,
Send his good Spirit from above,
Make our communications sweet,
And cause our hearts to burn with love.

3 Forgotten be each worldly theme,
When Christians see each other thus;
We only wish to speak of him
Who lived, and died, and reigns for us.

4 We'll talk of all he did and said,
And suffered for us here below;
The path he marked for us to tread,
And what he's doing for us now.

5 Thus, as the moments pass away,
We'll love, and wonder, and adore;
And hasten on the glorious day
When we shall meet to part no more.

Source: The Voice of Praise: a collection of hymns for the use of the Methodist Church #511

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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 >

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First Line:	Kindred in Christ, for His dear sake
Title:	A Welcome to Christian Friends
Author:	John Newton
Meter:	8.8.8.8
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Kindred in Christ, for His dear sake. J. Newton. [Welcome to Christian Friends.] Published in the Olney Hymns, 1779, Bk. ii., No. 70, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed, "A Welcome to Christian Friends." It is in common use in its original form, and also as: (1) "Kindred in Christ, to us 'tis given,” adapted for Union and Home Missionary Meetings, and (2) "May He by Whose kind care we meet," also suitable for similar gatherings.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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