Jeremiah 23:29Is not My Word like as a fire?
saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
Words: Benjamin Beddome (1717–1795). Published posthumously in Hymns Adapted to Public Worship (London: Burton & Briggs, 1818), number 689. Power of the Word.
Music: Butler, in the Sabbath-School Psalmodist (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: United Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1872), page 23 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know the composer, or where to get a good picture of him or Beddome (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
And is Thy Word, oh God, a fire?
Let light and heat from thence proceed;
The holy flame by it produced
Do Thou with constant fuel feed.
Is it a hammer? let it break
This hard unfeeling heart of mine,
And by its oft repeated strokes,
Prepare the way for joys divine.
Let not Thy faithful servants, Lord,
Of fruitless labors e’er complain;
Oh may this fire be never quenched,
This hammer never strike in vain.
Lord, send Thy truth to every land,
Let pagans feel its mighty power;
And let its wide dominion spread,
Till sin and death are known no more.