Come, Gracious Spirit, Heavenly Dove
Come, Gracious Spirit, Heavenly Dove
Come, gracious Spirit, heav’nly Dove,
With light and comfort from above;
Be Thou our Guardian, Thou our Guide;
O’er ev’ry thought and step preside.
To us the light of truth display,
And make us know and choose Thy way;
Plant holy fear in ev’ry heart,
That we from God may ne’er depart.
Lead us to holiness, the road
Which we must take to dwell with God;
Lead us to Christ, the living way;
Nor let us from His pastures stray.
Lead us to God, our final rest,
To be with Him forever blest;
Lead us to heav’n, its bliss to share,
Fullness of joy forever there.
HYMNWRITER SIMON BROWNE often found it easier to write things on paper than to know them experientially. He wrote an English dictionary, he completed the memorable commentary of Matthew Henry after that great scholar passed away, and he wrote beautiful hymns.
But he struggled with the painful memory of an event that happened when he was forty years old. Browne was attacked by a highwayman, and in selfdefense, he struck the man, knocking him down and killing him. Convinced that he was a murderer, Browne could never forgive himself; he felt God had taken his own soul from him. The prayer of his tortured heart is captured in the first line of this hymn, “Come, gracious Spirit, heavenly Dove, with light and comfort from above.”
[Jesus said,]“If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.”
John 14:15-17
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