Pleasing [kindly] [joyful] spring again is here, trees and fields in bloom appear

Representative Text

1. Kindly spring again is here,
Trees and fields in bloom appear;
Hark! the birds with artless lays
Warble their creator’s praise.

2. Where in winter all was snow,
Now the flowers in clusters grow;
And the corn, in green array,
Promises a harvest-day.

3. Lord, afford a spring to me,
Let me feel like what I see;
Speak, and by Thy gracious voice,
Make my drooping soul rejoice.

4. On Thy garden deign to smile,
Raise the plants, enrich the soil;
Soon Thy presence will restore
Life to what seemed dead before.

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #3535

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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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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Pleasing [kindly] [joyful] spring again is here, trees and fields in bloom appear
Author:	John Newton
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Kindly Spring again is here. J. Newton. [Spring.] The hymn in The Council School Hymn Book, 1905, is a cento, stanzas i.-iii. being from J. Newton's "Pleasing spring again is here," Olney Hymns, 1779, Bk. 2, No. 33, somewhat altered, and st. iv. by another hand. In The English Hymnal, 1906, there is another cento beginning with the same altered first line.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Notes

Kindly Spring again is here. J. Newton. [Spring.] The hymn in The Council School Hymn Book, 1905, is a cento, stanzas i.-iii. being from J. Newton's "Pleasing spring again is here," Olney Hymns, 1779, Bk. 2, No. 33, somewhat altered, and st. iv. by another hand. In The English Hymnal, 1906, there is another cento beginning with the same altered first line.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

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