A General Hymn of Praise for Creation

I.

Let all in heav’n and earth combine

To speak their great creator’s praise;

My tongue the joyful choir shall join;

His glorious name inspires my lays.

II.

Ye seraphs! who behold his face,

Let this great theme your harps employ;

Or, with a graceful pause, confess,

You cannot raise your notes so high.

III.

The sun, that walks th’ ethereal road,

His great creator’s praise proclaims;

The moon and stars confess a God,

Who kindled up their glorious flames.

IV.

Ye tuneful birds, the concert join; 

’Twas he, who gave you power to sing:

Ye mountains, hills, and trees, combine

To praise the great eternal King.

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 8, p. 100; The Christian’s Magazine 6 (1765), p. 89; Protestant Dissenters’ Magazine, vol. 3 (1796), p. 233. 

This hymn is not included in Hymnary nor is any mention of Hannah Towgood Wakeford. Poem is similar to Anne Steele’s “Meditating on Creation and Providence” in Hymns on Various Subjects, no. 3, in Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional (1760), vol. 1.