Scripture Verse

A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead…a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. Luke 10:30,33

Introduction

portrait
Philip Doddridge
(1702–1751)

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 205: The good Sa­ma­ri­tan.

Music: Eag­ley James Walch, 1860 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

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

Lyrics

Father of mer­cies, send Thy grace
All pow­er­ful from above
To form in our obe­di­ent souls
The im­age of Thy love.

O may our sym­pa­thiz­ing breasts
That ge­ne­rous plea­sure know
Kindly to share in othe­rs’ joy,
And weep for oth­ers’ woe!

When the most help­less sons of grief
In low dis­tress are laid,
Soft be our hearts their pains to feel,
And swift our hands to aid.

So Je­sus looked on dy­ing men,
When throned above the skies,
And ’midst th’em­braces of His God
He felt com­pas­sion rise.

On wings of love the Sav­ior flew
To raise us from the ground,
And made the rich­est of His blood
A balm for eve­ry wound.

illustration
The Good Samaritan
Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible, 1902