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Updated 09/04/2020

 

O Come and Dwell in Me


Charles Wesley

The words for “O Come and Dwell in Me” were written by Charles Wesley.  The music is by Louis Bourgeois as adapted by Henry Crotch.

Crotch’s mu­sic­al gift showed it­self ear­ly; at age two, he was play­ing the or­gan which his fa­ther built. With­in a year, he was giv­ing pub­lic re­cit­als in Lon­don, and aca­dem­ics wrote pa­pers about the young pro­di­gy. He was play­ing violin and pi­a­no by age 7, and by 11 was as­sist­ant or­gan­ist to John Ran­dall at King’s Coll­ege, Cam­bridge. He com­posed an ora­tor­io by 14, and at 15 was the or­gan­ist at Christ Church, Ox­ford; he re­ceived his doc­tor­al de­gree at age 24. In 1822, he helped found the Roy­al Acad­e­my of Mu­sic. He had a dis­ting­uished ca­reer com­pos­ing, teach­ing, and lec­tur­ing.

 

 

Lyrics by Charles Wesley

  O come and dwell in me,
Spirit of power within,
And bring the glorious liberty
From sorrow, fear, and sin.

Hasten the joyful day
Which shall my sins consume,
When old things shall be done away,
And all things new become.
I want the witness, Lord,
That all I do is right,
According to Thy mind and Word,
Well pleasing in Thy sight.

I ask no higher state;
Indulge me but in this,
And soon or later then translate
To my eternal bliss.

This same tune is used for a number of hymns including, O Day of God Draw Nigh; lyrics by Robert Balgarnie Young Scott (1899-1987).  Scott was a grad­u­ate of Knox Coll­ege at the Un­i­ver­si­ty of To­ron­to (PhD). Or­dained a Unit­ed Church of Canada min­is­ter in 1926, he served in Long Branch, On­tario. He went on to teach at Un­ion Coll­ege, Van­cou­ver, Bri­tish Co­lum­bia; Unit­ed The­o­log­ic­al Coll­ege, Mc­Gill Un­i­ver­si­ty, Mont­re­al (where he was the first dean of the Fa­cul­ty of Di­vin­i­ty/Re­li­gious Stu­dies); and Prince­ton The­o­log­ic­al Sem­in­ary (chair of the re­li­gion de­part­ment and Dan­forth Profes­sor of Re­li­gion). He al­so served as pres­i­dent of the Fel­low­ship for a Christ­ian So­cial Or­der, and was a Roy­al Ca­na­di­an Air Force chap­lain in World War II.

Lyrics by Robert Scott

 

O Day of God, draw nigh
In beauty and in power;
Come with thy timeless judgment now
To match our present hour.

Bring to our troubled minds,
Uncertain and afraid,
The quiet of a steadfast faith,
Calm of a call obeyed.

Bring justice to our land,
That all may dwell secure,
And finely build for days to come
Foundations that endure.
Bring to our world of strife
Thy sovereign Word of peace,
That war may haunt the earth no more,
And desolation cease.

O Day of God, draw nigh
As at creation’s birth;
Let there be light again, and set
Thy judgments in the earth.