Lord, we have wandered from thy way

Author: Philip Doddridge

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 >

Lord, we have wandered from Thy way. P. Doddridge. [The Lost Sheep.] This hymn in the D. MSS., No. 62, is undated, but immediately precedes one written on April 10, 1735, and may be dated circa 1735. It was included in Job Orion's edition of Doddridge's (posthumous) Hymns, &c, 1755, No. 65, in 3 stanzas of 3 lines, and again in J. D. Humphreys's ed. of the same, 1839, No. 79. In each case the original title, "The wandering Sheep recovered. Psalms cxix. 176” is retained.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)