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Deal Gently, With the Erring

Representative Text

1 Think gently of the erring one;
And let us not forget,
However darkly stained by sin,
He is our brother yet.

2 Heir of the same inheritance,
Child of the selfsame God,
He hath but stumbled in the path
We have in weakness trod.

3 Forget not, thou hast often sinned,
And sinful yet may’st be;
Deal gently with the erring heart,
As God has dealt with thee.

Amen.

Source: The Hymnal of The Evangelical United Brethren Church #381

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Author: Mrs. T. J. Carney

Carney, Julia Abigail (Fletcher). (Lancaster, Massachusetts, April 6, 1823--November 1, 1908, Galesburg, Illinois). Universalist. Married Rev. T.J. Carney, a Universalist minister. Author of many prose articles and poems, generally published in Universalist periodicals. In later life she lived in Galesburg, Illinois. Three of her hymns were included in Church Harmonies, New and Old, 1895: 1. Father, we pray for those who dwell 2. Our heaven is everywhere 3. Think gently of the erring --Henry Wilder Foote, DNAH Archives… Go to person page >

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Text Information

First Line: Think gently of the erring one, O let us not forget
Title: Deal Gently, With the Erring
Author: Mrs. T. J. Carney (1844)
Language: English
Refrain First Line: Deal gently, deal gently
Copyright: Public Domain
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Notes

Think gently of the erring [one]. [Gentleness.] This hymn is given in the American Universalist's Hymns for Christian Devotion, by Adams and Chapin, Boston, 1846, No. 813, in 2 stanzas of 8 lines, and headed “Compassion for the Sinning." It is there given as by "Miss Fletcher," a writer to us otherwise unknown. It is in the awkward metre of 7.6.8.6.8.6.8.6. As usually found in modern American hymnbooks it is in CM. as given in H. W. Beecher's Plymouth Collection, 1855, No. 1062, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines; but sometimes with the omission of stanza iii.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Timeline

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Media

The Cyber Hymnal #6569
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Instances

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The Cyber Hymnal #6569

The Cyber Hymnal #6569
Include 137 pre-1979 instances
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