Searcher of hearts, before thy face

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 >

Searcher of hearts, before Thy face. P. Doddridge. [Lent]. Published by Job Orton, in his posthumous edition of Doddridge’s Hymns, &c., 1755, No. 250, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed, “Peter’s Admonition to Simon Magus, Acts viii. 21-24.” It was repeated in J. D. Humphrey’s edition of the same, 1839.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)