Hymn 115. The Great Physician

    Luke 6. 19.

         Ye mourning sinners, here disclose

         Your deep complaints your various woes;

         Approach, ’tis Jesus, he can heal

         The pains which mourning sinners feel.

         To eyes long clos’d in mental night,                                                                 

         Strangers to all the joys of light,

         His Word imparts a blissful ray:

         Sweet morning of celestial day!

         Ye helpless lame, lift up your eyes,

         The Lord, the  Saviour bids you rise;                                                               

         New life and strength his voice conveys,

         And plaintive groans are chang’d for praise.

         Nor shall the leper hopeless lie

         Beneath the Great Physician’s eye;

         Sin’s deepest power his word controuls,                                             

         That fatal leprosy of souls.

         That hand divine, which can asswage

         The burning fever’s restless rage;

         That hand, omnipotent and kind,

         Can cool the fever of the mind.                                                             

         When freezing palsy chills the veins,

         And pale, cold Death already reigns,

         He speaks; the vital powers revive:

         He speaks, and dying sinners live.

         Dear Lord, we wait thy healing hand;                                                              

         Diseases fly at thy command;

         O let thy sovereign touch impart

         Life, strength, and health to every heart!

         Then shall the sick, the blind, the lame,

         Adore their Great Physician’s name;                                                               

         Then dying souls shall bless their God,

         And spread thy wonderous praise abroad.

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 1, pp. 42-43; Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship, no. 115 (stanzas 1-7); Poems, 1780, vol. 1, pp. 15-16; MS, Steele Collection, STE 3/1/4 no. 13 and STE 3/1/6 no. 4, Angus Library, Regents Park College,  Oxford.