The hour of my departure's come

Representative Text

1 The hour of my departure’s come;
I hear the voice that calls me home;
at last, O Lord! let trouble cease,
and let thy servant die in peace.
2 The race appointed I have run;
the combat’s o’er, the prize is won;
and now my witness is on high,
and now my record’s in the sky.

3 Not in mine innocence I trust;
I bow before thee in the dust;
and through my Saviour’s blood alone
I look for mercy at thy throne.
4 I leave the world without a tear,
save for the friends I held so dear;
to heal their sorrows, Lord, descend,
and to the friendless prove a friend.

5 I come, I come, at thy command,
I give my spirit to thy hand;
stretch forth thine everlasting arms,
and shield me in the last alarms.
6 The hour of my departure’s come;
I hear the voice that calls me home:
now, O my God! let trouble cease,
now let thy servant die in peace.

Source: The Irish Presbyterian Hymbook #H5

Author: John Logan

Logan, John, son of a farmer, born at Fala, Midlothian, 1748, and educated at Edinburgh University, in due course entering the ministry of the Church of Scotland and becoming the minister of South Leith in 1770. During the time he held this charge he delivered a course of lectures on philosophy and history with much success. While he was thus engaged, the chair of Universal History in the University became vacant; but as a candidate he was unsuccessful. A tragedy, entitled Runnamede, followed. He offered it to the manager of Covent Garden Theatre, but it was interdicted by the Lord Chamberlain "upon suspicion of having a seditious tendency." It was subsequently acted in Edinburgh. In 1775 he formed one of the Committee by whom the Translati… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: The hour of my departure's come
Author: John Logan
Meter: 8.8.8.8
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

The hour of my departure's come. J. Logan. [Death anticipated.] This is hymn No. 5, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, of the "Hymns" appended to the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases, 1781. We have most reluctantly assigned this sweetly plaintive hymn to J. Logan rather than to M. Bruce. The hymn is in several modern hymn-books in Great Britain and America.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

SAXONY (Spangenberg)


LEIGH (Reinagle)


HAMBURG

Lowell Mason (PHH 96) composed HAMBURG (named after the German city) in 1824. The tune was published in the 1825 edition of Mason's Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music. Mason indicated that the tune was based on a chant in the first Gregorian tone. HAMBURG is a very simple tune with…

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Timeline

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The Cyber Hymnal #2561

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The Irish Presbyterian Hymbook #H5

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