Spirit of God, descend upon my heart
Spirit of God, descend upon my heart. George Croly* (1780-1860).
From Croly’s Scenes from Scripture with other Poems (1851), where it had six stanzas. It was shortened to five stanzas (omitting stanza 5) and found in Scottish books from RCH onwards (CH3, CH4) with minor alterations and set to Orlando Gibbons*’s SONG 22. The original six stanzas in 1851 were:
Spirit of God! descend upon my heart; Wean it from earth, through all its pulses move;Stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art, And make me love Thee, as I ought to love.
I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
No sudden rending of the veil of clay;
No angel visitant, no opening skies; -
But take the dimness of the soul...
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MLA style (see MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 3rd Ed.)
. "Spirit of God, descend upon my heart."
The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press. Web. 13 Jul. 2025.<
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/s/spirit-of-god,-descend-upon-my-heart>.
Chicago style (see The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Ed.)
. "Spirit of God, descend upon my heart."
The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press, accessed July 13, 2025,
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/s/spirit-of-god,-descend-upon-my-heart.