THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 167
After his death, a poem was found in his pocket-hook, headed " Nunc diruittis." It expresses submission to the Divine will, but at the same time " a desire to depart."
In it he says :
" Lamb ! I languish till that day I see, When Thou wilt say, come up and be with me. Now twice seven years have I Thy servant been ; Now let me end my service and my sin."
Some of Cennick s hymns are printed after his sermons. They were probably written to be sung with them. His first hymns were published while he was at Kingswood. Under date July, 1739, C. Wesley says in his Diary, "I corrected Mr. Cennick s hymns for the press." His work is entitled, " Sacred Hymns for the Children of God in the Days of their Pilgrimage," 1741 ; also two more parts in 1742. He also wrote " Hymns for Chil dren," 1754, and a " Collection of Sacred Hymns," 1752 ; and the Rev. Sweetner, Cennick s son-in-law, published from MSS. some of his father-in-law s hymns in the Moravian collection, of which he was editor, in 1789. Several of his hymns in the " Xew Congregational Hymn Book " are from his work entitled, " Sacred Hymns for the Use of Religious Societies, in three parts " (1743 5). In his preface to the second part, he says, " Our Saviour has again given me freedom to give into your hands another little parcel of hymns. I pray they may be sanc tified to your dear souls through His blood and wounds to whose honour they are composed. Let love cover every fault you meet with, and if the Lamb of God blesses these hymns at all to any of God s dear societies, let them praise the Lamb only for them."
" We sing to Thee, Thou Son of God." No. 310.
This is an altered form of part of Cennick s second hymn in his "Hymns, 1743" his rendering of the "Te Deum" in twelve verses.
"Brethren, let us join to bless." No. 314.
This is Cennick s (1742), somewhat altered.
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