[Music]
I love thee, I love thee, I love thee, my Lord.
I love thy dear people, thy ways and thy word.
I love thee, I love thee, and that thou dost know;
But how much I love thee, I never can show.
I'm happy, I'm happy, O wondrous account!
My joys are immortal, I stand on the mount!
I gaze on my treasure, and long to be there,
With Jesus and angels, my kindred so dear.
O Jesus, my Savior, with thee I am blest!
My life and salvation, my joy and my rest!
Thy Name be my theme, and thy love be my song!
Thy grace shall inspire both my heart and my tongue.
O who's like my Savior? He's Salem's bright King;
He smiles, and he loves me, and helps me to sing:
I'll praise him and bless him, with notes loud and shrill,
While rivers of pleasure my spirit do fill:
O Jesus, my Savior! I know thou art mine;
For thee all the pleasures of sin I resign:
Of objects most pleasing I love thee the best;
Without thee I'm wretched, but with thee I'm blessed.
Tho' weak and despised, by faith I now stand,
Preserv'd and defended by Heaven's kind hand:
By Jesus supported, I'll praise his dear name,
Regardless of danger, of praise, or of blame.
I find him in singing, I find him in prayer;
In sweet meditation he always is near:
My constant companion, Oh may we ne'er part!
All glory to Jesus, who dwells in my heart!
The text is attributed to John Adam Granade, the "Billy Sunday" of the
revival movement which reached a high point in its trend at about the
beginning of the nineteenth century. Granade was the author of many
widely sung texts.
The tune is clearly of the 'Lord Lovel' family. Compare, for example,
the melody which Sharp found in North Carolina; see Sharp, i., 38, A.
Its earliest appearance in American religious song books seems to have
been in Ingalls' _Christian Harmony_, 1805, p. 44.
No. 135
NEW BRITAIN or HARMONY GROVE, SOH 8