Pentecost
Come Down, O Love Divine
- Words:
- Bianco of Siena d. 1434. Translated by Richard F. Littledale, 1867.
- Music:
- 'Down Ampney' Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906.
- Setting:
- Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906.
- Metre:
- 6 6 11 6 6 11
- 1Come 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.
- 2O let it freely burn,til earthly passions turnTo dust and ashes in its heat consuming;And let Thy glorious lightshine ever on my sight,And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.
- 3Let holy charitymine 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.
- 4And 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 placeWherein the Holy Spirit makes His dwelling.
Scripture
Topics
In the hymnals
- Written in 1867, the words are in 125 hymnals indexed by Hymnary.org. Their history →
- The tune, Down Ampney, is in 109 hymnals. The tune →
Words, music and setting are in the public domain. The score is from the Open Hymnal Project (Brian J. Dumont), which places its own work in the public domain. The piano is the FluidR3 General MIDI sound font (MIT licence). How many hymnals print a hymn, and when it was written, is from Hymnary.org.