178 OUR HYMNS :
on Various Subjects, with an Hj-mn adapted to each Subject." This book contains fifteen sermons and fifteen hymns ; and it is remarkable that the hymns are not given in his hymn-books pub lished afterwards.
" Now let our souls on wings sublime." No. 713.
This is the hymn given at the close of " Sermon IV.," in the volume just referred to. The title of the sermon is, "The Return of the Body to Earth, and the Return of the Soul to God, Practically Improved." The text is, " Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was ; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." Eccles. xii. 7. Verse 2 is omitted in the " New Congregational Hymn Book."
" Great God ! the nations of the earth." No. 908.
This is part of a piece of forty-six verses, which appeared in the first volume of hymns, 1769. It is the sixty-ninth in that collec tion, and is headed, " The Universal Diffusion of the Gospel Promised by God and Pleaded by His people," in seven parts. It is somewhat altered from the original. The collection gives the authors names, and the preface explains that Dr. Gibbons hymns were written at different times during many years of his ministry, as he had opportunity and inclination.
Other poetical works by Dr. Gibbons were the following : " The Christian Minister, in three Poetical Epistles to Philander, to which are added 1st. Poetical versions of several parts of Scripture ; 2nd. Translations of poems from Greek and Latin writers ; and 3rd. Original pieces on various occasions," 1772. And " An English Version of the Latin Epitaphs in the Noncon formists Memorial, with a Poem to the Memory of the 2,000 Ministers Ejected by the Act of Uniformity," 1775.
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