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 verses. It was shortened to five verses and found in Scottish books from RCH onwards (CH3, CH4) set to Orlando Gibbons*’s SONG 22. The omitted verse was the original verse 5: I know Thee glorious! Might and mercy all, All that commands Thy creatures’ boundless praise, Yet shall my soul from that high vision fall, Too cold to worship, and too weak to gaze? The hymn has recently been used more widely, set to the tune SHELDONIAN by Cyril Taylor*, written for ‘Lead us, O Father, in the paths of peace’* by William H. Burleigh*, but used for this...