Scripture Verse

Hear Thou from Thy dwelling place, even from Heaven; and when Thou hearest, forgive. 2 Chronicles 6:21

Introduction

portrait
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)

Words: Ho­ra­ti­us Bo­nar, Hymns of Faith and Hope 1866.

Music: In­ter­ces­sion New Will­iam H. Call­cott, 1867 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

His son says, ‘My fa­ther was asked to pro­vide words to the mu­sic, and was spe­cial­ly re­quest­ed to fur­nish a fit­ting re­frain to the two love­ly lines of Men­dels­sohn’s, with which Call­cott’s tune “In­ter­cess­ion” ends.

In search­ing for a Scrip­ture theme con­taining some re­it­er­at­ed phrase al­most of the na­ture of a re­frain, he was struck with So­lo­mon’s pray­er at the ded­i­ca­tion of the temp­le (2 Chron. vi.), in which ev­ery sep­a­rate pe­ti­tion con­cludes with sub­stan­ti­al­ly the same words

This idea was ta­ken for the start­ing point, and So­lo­mon’s words, Hear Thou from hea­ven Thy dwell­ing place, and for­give, be­came the fa­mil­iar coup­let…This foun­da­tion once pro­vid­ed, the rest of the hymn was built up­on it.

This hymn my fa­ther liked, as he oft­en told me, as well as any he had ever wri­tten; for though he saw flaws in the po­et­ry, the sub­ject and work­ing out and whole tone of it seemed to him far bet­ter than ma­ny oth­er of his piec­es which had at­tained great­er po­p­ula­r­ity’ (Hymns of Ho­ra­ti­us Bo­nar, p. xxii.).

It was Bi­shop Fras­er of Man­ches­ter’s fa­vour­ite hymn.

Telford, pp. 362–63

Lyrics

When the wea­ry, seek­ing rest,
To Thy good­ness flee;
When the hea­vy la­den cast
All their load on Thee;
When the trou­bled, seek­ing peace,
On Thy name shall call;
When the sin­ner, seek­ing life,
At Thy feet shall fall:

Refrain

Hear then in love, O Lord, the cry
In Heav’n, Thy dwell­ing place on high.

When the child, with grave fresh lip,
Youth, or maid­en fair,
When the ag­èd, weak and grey,
Seek Thy face in pray­er;
When the wi­dow weeps to Thee,
Sad and lone and low;
When the or­phan brings to Thee
All his or­phan woe:

Refrain

When the stran­ger asks a home,
All his toils to end;
When the hun­gry crav­eth food,
And the poor a friend;
When the sail­or on the wave
Bows the fer­vent knee;
When the sol­dier on the field
Lifts his heart to Thee:

Refrain

When the man of toil and care,
In the ci­ty crowd,
When the shep­herd on the moor,
Names the name of God;
When the learn­èd and the high
Tired of earth­ly fame,
Upon high­er joys in­tent,
Name the bless­èd name:

Refrain

When the world­ling, sick at heart,
Lifts his soul above;
When the pro­di­gal looks back
To his Fa­ther’s love;
When the proud man, in his pride,
Stoops to seek Thy face;
When the bur­dened brings his guilt
To Thy throne of grace:

Refrain