Behold we come, dear Lord, to Thee

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Behold we come, dear Lord, to Thee

Author: William Birchley (1668)
Published in 12 hymnals

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	The Eucharist (Practical Organ Music for…

Representative Text

1 Behold we come, dear Lord, to thee
And bow before thy Throne,
We come to offer all our Vows,
Our Souls to thee alone.

2 Whate’er we have, whate’er we are,
Thy Bounty freely gave;
Thou dost here in Mercy spare,
And wilt hereafter save.

3 But o! can all our Store afford
No better Gifts for thee?
Thus we confess thy Riches, Lord,
And thus our Poverty.

4 'Tis not our Tongues or Knees can pay
The mighty Debt we owe:
Far more we shou'd, than we can say,
Far lower sho'd we bow.

5 Come then my Soul, bring all thy Powers
And grieve thou hast no more,
Bring every Day thy choicest Hours
And thy great God adore.

6 But above all prepare thy Heart
On this his own blest Day,
In its sweet Task to bear a part,
And sing and love and pray!

Source: A Collection of Psalms and Hymns #XXIV

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Author: William Birchley

Pseudonym used by John Austin… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Behold we come, dear Lord, to Thee
Author:	William Birchley (1668)
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Behold we come, dear [good] Lord, to Thee. J. Austin. [Sunday.] This is the first hymn, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, in his Devotions in the Antient Way of Offices, 1668, and is appointed for Sunday at Matins. After passing through the various reprints of that work, and of the revised editions of Dorrington, and of Hickes, it was included, with slight alterations, in the Salisbury Hymn Book, 1857; Pott's Collection, 1861; the New Zealand Hymnal, 1872, and others. It had, however, previously appeared in J. Wesley's Psalms & Hymns, Charlestown, South Carolina, 1736-7, No. 24, in 6 stanzas. [William T. Brooke]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Tune

THIS ENDRIS NYGHT

EVAN (Havergal)

This tune [EVAN], "the popularity of which in Scotland, America, and the Colonies is quite unprecedented" (Tonic Sol Fa Reporter, May 15, 1870), consists of the 1st, 2nd, 7th, and 8th strains of "O Thou dread Power" a sacred song by the Rev. W.H. Havergal, the melody being unaltered. EVAN II is the…

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SONG 67

SONG 67 was published as a setting for Psalm 1 in Edmund Prys's Welsh Llyfr y Psalmau (1621). Erik Routley (PHH 31) suggests that the tune should be ascribed to Prys. Orlando Gibbons (PHH 167) supplied a new bass line for the melody when it was published with a number of his own tunes in George With…

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