Hymn [He came from the mansions, the mansions on high]

  On 2 Corinthians viii, 9. Adapted to Missions.

He came from the mansions, the mansions on high,

   From the throne, from the bosom of God;

The realms of adversity heard his first sigh,

   In infancy’s fragile abode.

O Bethlehem! thy manger once cradled that head,

   Whence wisdom eternally sprung;

And pity assigned him his lowliest bed

   On whom the vast universe hung.

Yes, moved by the grace of his infinite heart,

   Alone in affliction he stood;                                                             10

And deigned from the wealth of the God-head to part,

   To pour it in treasures of blood.

Then haste, let the sons of calamity know,

   We take from his mercies our plan;

And feel how Divinity stooped to the woe,

   And pitied the sorrows of man.

Hail, kindred Immortals! in regions of night,

   We’ll visit your desolate shore,

We’ll send you his gospel, his gospel of light,

   O take it – and perish no more.                                                      20

                                                         S—

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011),  vol. 5, pp. 95-96; Baptist Magazine, 1 (1809), p. 120; MS, Box 22/1, Reeves Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford; titled ‘Missionary Hymn’, signed ‘M.G.S.’, with punctuation only at the end of lines 4, 8, 12, and 16; another manuscript copy can be found in Reeves 25/1, titled ‘Missionary Hymn’, with the same ending punctuation as Reeves 22/1, but without the last stanza.