To God the Father

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Hail, Father, whose creating call

Author: Samuel Wesley
Tune: SEMPER ASPECTEMUS
Published in 25 hymnals

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Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 Hail, Father, whose creating Call
Unnumber'd Worlds attend;
Jehovah, comprehending all,
Whom none can comprehend!

2 In Light unsearchable inthron'd,
Which Angels dimly see;
The Fountain of the God-head own'd,
And foremost of the Three.

3 From thee thro' an eternal Now,
The Son, thine Offspring, flow'd;
An everlasting Father thou,
An everlasting God.

4 Nor quite display'd to Worlds above,
Nor quite on Earth conceal'd;
By wondrous, unexhausted :ove,
To mortal Man reveal'd.

5 Supreme and all sufficient God,
When Nature shall expire,
And Worlds created by thy Nod
Shall perish by thy Fire.

6 Thy Name Jehovah be ador'd
By Creatures without End,
Whom none but Thy essential Word
And Spirit comprehend.

Source: A Collection of Psalms and Hymns #XI

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Author: Samuel Wesley

Samuel Wesley, M.A., the younger, was the eldest child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born in or near London in 1691. He received his early education from his mother, who always took a special interest in him as her firstborn. In 1704 he went to Westminster School, where he was elected King's Scholar in 1707. Westminster had, under the mastership of Dr. Busby for 55 years, attained the highest reputation for scholarship, and Samuel Wesley, as a classical scholar, was not unworthy of his school. In 1709, Dr. Spratt, Bishop of Rochester, patronised the young scholar, and frequently invited him to Bromley. In 1711 he went with a Westminster studentship to Christ Church, Oxford, and having taken his degree, returned to Westminster as an… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Hail, Father, whose creating call
Title:	To God the Father
Author:	Samuel Wesley
Meter:	8.6.8.6
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Hail, Father, Whose creating call. J. Wesley, jun. [Adoration of God the Father.] First published as No. 1 of his Poems on Several Occasions, 1736, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled, "A hymn to God the Father." It was repeated in the 2nd edition, 1743; and in Nicholls's reprint, 1862, p. 365. In the Psalms & Hymns published by J. Wesley at Charlestown, South Carolina, 1736-7, it is No. 11. It was not included in the Wesleyan Hymn Book until the Supplement 1830, No. 561 (revised edition, 1875, No. 642); although as "Hail, Father, Whose commanding call" it was given in Toplady's Psalms & Hymns, 1776, No. 189.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Hail, Father, Whose creating call, p. 477, ii. This hymn by S. Wesley, jun., is omitted from the Methodist Hymn Book , 1904, but is retained in the 1904 edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern in the form given to it in the Supp. A. & M., 1889.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)