O comfort to the dreary

Representative Text

1 O, Comfort to the dreary!
O, Joy to the oppressed!
"Come unto Me, ye weary,
And I will give you rest."
O, come with all your weakness,
Come with your load of woe;
And learn if him with meekness
All righteousness to know.

3 Ye who the world have courted,
And suffer'd from its spite;
Ye who with sin have sported,
And felt its serpent bite;
Come, learn, your follies quitting,
That this world's gain is loss;
To Christ's light yoke submitting,
Come, and take up the cross.

4 O come and make the trial;
Christ's service is release;
If hard the self denial,
Its fruit is joy and peace.
His word your faith defending,
Shall serve you for the strife;
Peace all your steps attending;
The prime, eternal life!

Source: Christ in Song: for all religious services nearly one thousand best gospel hymns, new and old with responsive scripture readings (Rev. and Enl.) #117

Author: Josiah Conder

Josiah Conder was born in London, in 1789. He became a publisher, and in 1814 became proprietor of "The Eclectic Review." Subsequently to 1824, he composed a series of descriptive works, called the "Modern Traveller," which appeared in thirty volumes. He also published several volumes of poems and hymns. He was the author of the first "Congregational Hymn Book" (1836). He died in 1855. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872.… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: O comfort to the dreary
Author: Josiah Conder
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

O comfort to the dreary. J. Conder. [Christ the Comforter.] Given as No. 428 in the Congregational Hymn Book, 1836, in 5 stanzas of 8 lines, again in his Choir and Oratory, 1837, p. 45; and again, with the omission of stanza v. in his Hymns of Praise, Prayer, &c, 1856. It is usually given with the omission of stanza iii.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

AURELIA

Composed by Samuel S. Wesley (PHH 206), AURELIA (meaning "golden") was published as a setting for “Jerusalem the Golden” in Selection of Psalms and Hymns, which was compiled by Charles Kemble and Wesley in 1864. Though opinions vary concerning the tune's merits (Henry J. Gauntlett once condemned…

Go to tune page >


Timeline

Media

The Cyber Hymnal #4734
  • Adobe Acrobat image (PDF)
  • Noteworthy Composer score (NWC)
  • XML score (XML)

Instances

Instances (1 - 1 of 1)
TextScoreAudio

The Cyber Hymnal #4734

Include 4 pre-1979 instances
Suggestions or corrections? Contact us