Descend From Heaven Celestial Dove, by Joseph Hart

Descend from heaven, celestial Dove,

With flames of pure seraphic love

Our ravished breasts inspire;

Fountain of joy, blest Paraclete,

Warm our cold hearts with heavenly heat,

And set our souls on fire.

Breathe on these bones, so dry and dead;

Thy sweetest, softest influence shed

In all our hearts abroad;

Point out the place where grace abounds;

Direct us to the bleeding wounds

Of our incarnate God.

Conduct, blest Guide, thy sinner-train

To Calvary, where the Lamb was slain,

And with us there abide;

Let us our loved Redeemer meet,

Weep o’er his piercèd hands and feet,

And view his wounded side.

From which pure fountain if thou draw

Water to quench the fiery law,

And blood to purge our sin;

We’ll tell the Father in that day,

(And thou shalt witness what we say),

“We’re clean, just God, we’re clean.”

Teach us for what to pray, and how;

And since, kind God, ’tis only thou

The throne of grace canst move,

Pray thou for us, that we, through faith,

May feel the effects of Jesus’ death,

Through faith, that works by love.

Thou, with the Father and the Son,

Art that mysterious Three-in-One,

God blest for evermore!

Whom though we cannot comprehend,

Feeling thou art the sinner’s Friend,

We love thee and adore.

Joseph Hart, in A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship, by William Gadsby (London: Gospel Standard Publications, 1987; also, n.p.: Gospel Standard Trust Publications, 2000), pp. 38-39, Hymn #29.  Meter: 8.8.6.  Ezek. 37:5, 9; Jn. 16:14.