Grace! ’tis A Charming Sound
Grace! ’Tis a Charming Sound
Grace! ’tis a charming sound,
Harmonious to the ear;
Heaven with the echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear.
Grace first contrived the way
To save rebellious man;
And all the steps that grace display
Which drew the wondrous plan.
Grace led my roving feet
To tread the heavenly road;
And new supplies each hour I meet,
While pressing on to God.
Grace all the work shall crown,
Through everlasting days;
It lays in heaven the topmost stone,
And well deserves the praise.
GRACE led Philip Doddridge to take some surprising steps in his life. He was a gifted student, but he turned down a scholarship to train for ministry in the Church of England. He chose instead to side with the Dissenters, the Nonconformists who emphasized personal commitment to Christ over institutional loyalty. He went to a Dissenter college, and later he pastored a Congregational church. He wrote about 370 hymns, never seeing any of them published in his lifetime.
Grace sometimes works like that, too. In His goodness, God may grant us anonymity. He may delay the rewards of public acclaim until after we die. This hymn conveys the author’s strong awareness of heaven—the place where God’s grace is most at home. On earth, grace is the faint underscoring of our lives. In heaven it echoes through the halls!
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
Ephesians 2:8-9
From the book
