116 OUB HYMNS :
Dr. Doddridge was a man of extensive personal influence, and enjoyed the friendship of Bishop Warburton, the Countess of Huntingdon, the \\ esleys, Whitefield, Hervey, Dr. Watts, and of many other of the celebrities of those times. His name will be always remembered in connection with the cause of modern missions, a cause he heartily befriended when it was looked upon with comparative indifference. His name will also always be honoured in connection with the history of the founding of Dis senting Colleges. He warmly advocated such institutions, him self taught in several departments, not shrinking from the learned toil it .involved ; and it is said, that to his influence we owe the munificence of Mr. Coward for College purposes.
The comparatively early death of one so endeared to his family and beloved by his people and students, was felt as a severe shock, and produced general and unfeigned regret. Doddridge s over-wrought life was brought to a too early end by pulmonary disease, against which no means availed. For the benefit of warmer air, he had journeyed to Lisbon, where, soon after his arrival, and at the age of fifty, he fell asleep in Jesus.
According to the custom of the times, and to meet a want then felt, Doddridge wrote hymns, presenting in a brief and striking manner the principal teachings of his sermons, and designed to be sung at the close of them. They have been compared to " spiritual amber fetched up and floated off from sermons long since lost in the depths of bygone time." These hymns were not printed during the author s life-time ; but they were read in MSS. An account of his MSS. is given at the end of this sketch.
Lady Frances Gardiner, wife of Col. Gardiner, writing (1740) to Doddridge, speaks of having read his " charming hymns," and says that she has been requested to urge him to publish them. And in 1742, the poet, Robert Blair, writing to submit to Dod- dridge s opinion his work, " The Grave," which Dr. Watts had already praised, expresses himself as delighted with Doddridge s hymns. The collected hymns were published after the author s
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