Scripture Verse

I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. John 10:28

Introduction

Words: Phi­lip Dodd­ridge (1702–1751). Pub­lished post­hu­mous­ly in Hymns Found­ed on Va­ri­ous Texts in the Ho­ly Scrip­tures, by Job Or­ton (Shrop­shire, Eng­land: Jo­shua Ed­dowes & John Cot­ton, 1755), num­ber 231: The hap­pi­ness and se­cu­ri­ty of Christ’s sheep.

Music: Al­bi­on, at­trib­ut­ed to Ro­bert M. Boyd in The Ken­tuc­ky Har­mo­ny, by Ana­ni­as Da­vis­son (Har­ris­on­burg, Vir­gin­ia: 1816) (🔊 pdf nwc) (re­peats last line of each verse).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Boyd (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Philip Doddridge (1702–1751)

Lyrics

My soul, with joy at­tend
While Je­sus si­lence breaks;
No an­gel’s harp such mu­sic yields,
As what my Shep­herd speaks.

I know My sheep, He cries,
‟My soul ap­proves them well;
Vain is the trea­cher­ous world’s dis­guise,
And vain the rage of hell.

I free­ly feed them now
With to­kens of My love,
But rich­er pas­tures I pre­pare
And sweet­er streams above.

Unnumbered years of bliss
I to My sheep will give;
And, while My throne un­shak­en stands,
Shall all My chos­en live.

This tried al­migh­ty hand
Is raised for their de­fense:
Where is the pow­er shall reach them there?
Or what shall force them thence?

Enough, my gra­cious Lord,
Let faith tri­um­phant cry;
My heart can on this pro­mise live,
Can on this pro­mise die.