SPIRIT OF GOD, DESCEND UPON MY HEART

A hymn that is often sung on Pentecost Sunday is actually a deeply moving prayer for personal devotion and should actually be used anytime.  The author was George Croly who was born in Dublin in 1780.  His father was a physician, but George decided to become a physician of souls. 

He was ordained into the Anglican ministry when he graduated from Trinity College in 1804.  There was no church available to him at the time, so he moved to London where he began writing.  He developed a respected reputation as a gifted man of words.

Eventually, George was assigned to St. Stephen’s, a church in the slums of London that had been closed for over a hundred years!  As he began preaching eloquent sermons…without notes…the crowds came.  His energy seemed boundless.  He churned out seemingly endless compositions of hymns, dramas, biographies, historical and theological works, sermons and novels. 

In 1854 George published a volume of hymns…but before it was released, a fire broke out and destroyed most of the copies. One hymn from this book lives on still today.

George Croly’s prayer to the Holy Spirit is in His hymn and it is based on Galatians 5:25, where we read, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit”  His prayer is, SPIRIT OF GOD, DESCEND UPON MY HEART.