Today’s hymn comes from Samuel Medley (1738-1799). He was well educated as a young boy in a school his father kept, but after he did not like the business he was being apprenticed in, Medley joined the Brit­ish Roy­al Na­vy in 1755. He was wound­ed badly and had to take leave; while he re­cu­per­at­ed, some­one read him a ser­mon by Is­aac Watts, lead­ing to his con­ver­sion. He left the na­vy and stu­died for the min­is­try becoming a Baptist minister and hymn writer¹. Enjoy! 

Awake, my soul, in joyful lays,
And sing thy great Redeemer’s praise;
He justly claims a song from me;
His loving-kindness, O how free!

He saw me ruined in the fall,
Yet loved me notwithstanding all;
He saved me from my lost estate;
His loving-kindness, O how great!

Though numerous hosts of mighty foes,
Though earth and hell my way oppose,
He safely leads my soul along;
His loving-kindness, O how strong!

When trouble, like a gloomy cloud,
Has gathered thick and thundered loud,
He near my soul has always stood;
His loving-kindness, O how good!

Often I feel my sinful heart
Prone from my Saviour to depart;
But though I have him oft forgot,
His loving-kindness changes not!

Soon shall I pass the gloomy vale;
Soon all my mortal powers must fail;
O may my last expiring breath
His loving-kindness sing in death!

Then let me mount and soar away
To the bright world of endless day,
And sing with rapture and surprise,
His loving-kindness in the skies.

¹hymntime.com/tch/bio/m/e/d/l/medley_s.htm

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Today’s hymn is another hymn from Horatius Bonar that was too good for me not to share. It was originally included in his Hymns of Faith and Hope (1861) in ten stanzas. Enjoy mediating on this hymn today!

O love of God, how strong and true,
eternal and yet ever new,
uncomprehended and unbought,
beyond all knowledge and all thought!
O love of God, how deep and great,
far deeper than man’s deepest hate;
self-fed, self-kindled like the light,
changeless, eternal, infinite.

O heav’nly love, how precious still,
in days of weariness and ill,
in nights of pain and helplessness,
to heal, to comfort, and to bless!
O wide-embracing, wondrous love!
We read you in the sky above,
we read you in the earth below,
in seas that swell and streams that flow.

We read you best in him who came
bearing for us the cross of shame;
sent by the Father from on high,
our life to live, our death to die.
We read your pow’r to bless and save,
e’en in the darkness of the grave;
still more in resurrection light
we read the fullness of your might.

O love of God, our shield and stay
through all the perils of our way!
Eternal love, in you we rest,
forever safe, forever blest.
We will exalt you, God and King,
and we will ever praise your name;
we will extol you ev’ry day,
and evermore your praise proclaim.

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In 1793, Gads­by joined the Bap­tist Church at Co­ven­try, and in 1798 be­gan to preach. In 1800, a cha­pel was built for him at Des­ford, Lei­ces­ter­shire, and two years lat­er an­o­ther in the town of Hinck­ley. In 1805, he moved to Man­ches­ter, be­com­ing min­is­ter of a cha­pel in Roch­dale Road, where he con­tin­ued un­til his death. His works in­clude: The Naz­a­rene’s Songs, Be­ing a Com­po­si­tion of Orig­in­al Hymns; A Se­lect­ion of Hymns for Pub­lic Wor­ship; Hymns on the Death of Princess Char­lotte, and Selection of Hymns for Sun­day Schools. Enjoy this version by Sandra McCracken.

The love of Christ is rich and free;
Fixed on his own eternally;
Nor earth, nor hell, can it remove;
Long as he lives, his own he’ll love.

His loving heart engaged to be
Their everlasting Surety;
’Twas love that took their cause in hand,
And love maintains it to the end.

Love cannot from its post withdraw;
Nor death, nor hell, nor sin, nor law,
Can turn the Surety’s heart away;
He’ll love his own to endless day.

Love has redeemed his sheep with blood;
And love will bring them safe to God;
Love calls them all from death to life;
And love will finish all their strife.

He loves through every changing scene,
Nor aught can him from Zion wean;
Not all the wanderings of her heart
Can make his love from her depart.

At death, beyond the grave, he’ll love;
In endless bliss, his own shall prove
The blazing glory of that love
Which never could from them remove.

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