Scripture Verse

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 2 Corinthians 4:7

Introduction

portrait
Philip Doddridge
(1702–1751)

Words: Phi­lip Dodd­ridge, Sep­tem­ber 23, 1739. Dodd­ridge wrote this hymn for use in his own church. It was pub­lished post­hu­mous­ly in Hymns Found­ed on Va­ri­ous Texts in the Ho­ly Scrip­tures, by Job Or­ton (Shrop­shire, Eng­land: Jo­shua Ed­dowes & John Cot­ton, 1755), num­ber 275: The Gos­pel trea­sure in earth­en ves­sels.

Music: St. Ga­bri­el (Great­or­ex) Hen­ry W. Great­or­ex (1813–1858) (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

  • Aberdeen pos­si­bly by An­drew Tait, 1749 (🔊 pdf nwc)

If you know when the mu­sic was writ­ten, or where to get a good pic­ture of Great­or­ex (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

How rich Thy boun­ty, King of kings!
Thy fa­vors how di­vine!
The bless­ings which Thy Gos­pel brings,
How splen­did­ly they shine!

Gold is but dross, and gems but toys,
Should gold and gems com­pare;
How mean, when set against those joys
Thy poor­est ser­vants share!

Yet all these trea­sures of Thy grace
Are lodged in urns of clay;
And the weak sons of mor­tal race
Th’immortal gifts con­vey.

Feebly they lisp Thy glo­ries forth;
Yet grace the vic­to­ry gives;
Quickly they mol­der back to earth,
Yet still Thy Gos­pel lives.

Such won­ders pow­er di­vine ef­fects;
Such tro­phies God can raise;
His hand from crum­bling dust erects
His mo­nu­ments of praise.