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Death of a Minister in His Prime

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Representative Text

1 Go to the grave in all thy glorious prime,
In full activity of zeal and power;
A Christian cannot die before his time;
The Lord's appointment is the servant's hour.

2 Go to the grave: at noon from labour cease;
Rest on thy sheaves, thy harvest task is done;
Come from the heat of battle, and in peace,
Soldier! go home; with thee the fight is won.

3 Go to the grave, for there thy Saviour lay
In death's embraces, ere He rose on high;
And all the ransomed, by that narrow way,
Pass to eternal life beyond the sky.

4 Go to the grave? No, take thy seat above!
Be thy pure spirit present with the Lord,
Where thou for faith and hope hast perfect love,
And open vision for the written word.

Source: Methodist Hymn and Tune Book: official hymn book of the Methodist Church #582

Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Go to the grave in all thy glorious prime
Title: Death of a Minister in His Prime
Author: James Montgomery
Meter: 10.10.10.10
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

Go to the grave in all thy glorious pride [prime]. J. Montgomery. [Burial.] Written in February, 1823, on the death of the Rev. John Owen, for some years a Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, who died at the close of 1822. In the issue of the Sheffield Iris for Dec. 21, 1824, it is given with the following note:—

“These lines were written nearly two years ago, at the request of a friend, and were not then designed for general circulation. This month, however, they have

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Tune

EVENTIDE (Monk)TOULONOtherHighcharts.com
Frequency of use
EVENTIDE (Monk)

According to some sources, William H. Monk (PHH 332) wrote EVENTIDE for Lyte's text in ten minutes. As the story goes, Monk was attending a hymnal committee meeting for the 1861 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern of which he was music editor. Realizing that this text had no tune, Monk sat down at t…

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TOULON

TOULAN was originally an adaptation of the Genevan Psalter melody for Psalm 124 (124). In one melodic variant or another and with squared-off rhythms, the tune was used in English and Scottish psalters for various psalm texts. It was published in the United States in its four-line abridged form (cal…

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Timeline

Appearance of this hymn in hymnals184018601880190019201940196019802000050100Percent of hymnalsHighcharts.com

Media

The Cyber Hymnal #11018
  • PDF (PDF)
  • Noteworthy Composer Score (NWC)

Instances

Instances (1 - 2 of 2)

The Baptist Hymnal #644

TextScoreAudio

The Cyber Hymnal #11018

Include 119 pre-1979 instances
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