Spirit Of God, Descend Upon My Heart
Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart
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 my soul away.
Hast Thou not bid me love Thee, God and King?
All, all Thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see Thy cross; there teach my heart to cling:
O let me seek Thee, and O let me find!
Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;
Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.
Teach me to love Thee as Thine angels love,
One holy passion filling all my frame;
The kindling of the heaven descended Dove,
My heart an altar, and Thy love the flame.
GEORGE CROLY, who wrote this hymn, came from Ireland to minister in a small parish church in London. During his twenty-five years of service there he had much time for writing and became known for poems, novels, biographies, and plays. Then when he was fifty years old, he was asked to reopen a church in one of London’s worst slums that had been closed for more than a century. Croly’s preaching soon attracted crowds. At the age of seventy-four, he prepared a new hymnal for the congregation, including this hymn under the title “Holiness Desired.”
Croly had spent twenty-five years interacting with culture, and almost the same amount of time dealing with society’s ills in London’s slums. But to Croly what mattered most was not what a person was on the outside, but what he was on the inside. So in this hymn he shuts the door and asks for a fresh filling of the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Galatians 5:22-23
From the book
