Come Down, O Love Divine
DOWN AMPNEY6.6.11.6.6.11
Words: Bianco da SienaTranslated by Richard Frederick Littledale, 1867Music: DOWN AMPNEY, Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906
Practice player: melody only, played by your browser. The intro is the closing line of the tune, as many churches play it. Melody from the Open Hymnal Project (public domain).
Words
Come down, O love divine,
seek Thou this soul of mine,
And visit it with Thine own ardor glowing.
O Comforter, draw near,
within my heart appear,
And kindle it, Thy holy flame bestowing.
O let it freely burn,
til earthly passions turn
To dust and ashes in its heat consuming;
And let Thy glorious light
shine ever on my sight,
And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.
Let holy charity
mine outward vesture be,
And lowliness become mine inner clothing;
True lowliness of heart,
which takes the humbler part,
And o'er its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.
And so the yearning strong,
with which the soul will long,
Shall far outpass the pow'r of human telling;
For none can guess its grace,
till he become the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes His dwelling.
Scripture
The Bible passages this hymn draws on, in the King James Version.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
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