And are we now brought near to God. P. Doddridge. [Nearness to God.] In the “P. Doddridge’s manuscript" this hymn is undated, and the text differs from that published by J. Orton in Doddridge's, Hymns, 1755, but whether the alterations were by Doddridge or Orton cannot be determined. The hymn is in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled, "Nearness to God thro' Christ" In 1839, it was republished by J. Doddridge Humphreys, in Scripture Hymns, by the Rev. Philip Doddridge, D.D., new and corrected edition. The hymn in full is not in common use, but a cento, composed of stanzas i., ii. of the 1755 text, and two additional stanzas, based upon Doddridge's hymn, "High let us swell our tuneful notes" (q. v.), is in somewhat extensive use in America. It appeared in the American Prayer Book Collection, 1826, No. 95, and from thence passed into later hymnals, including the Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 1871.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Philip Doddridge (b. London, England, 1702; d. Lisbon, Portugal, 1751) belonged to the Non-conformist Church (not associated with the Church of England). Its members were frequently the focus of discrimination. Offered an education by a rich patron to prepare him for ordination in the Church of England, Doddridge chose instead to remain in the Non-conformist Church. For twenty years he pastored a poor parish in Northampton, where he opened an academy for training Non-conformist ministers and taught most of the subjects himself. Doddridge suffered from tuberculosis, and when Lady Huntington, one of his patrons, offered to finance a trip to Lisbon for his health, he is reputed to have said, "I can as well go to heaven from Lisbon as from Nort… Go to person page >
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