er thou'rt attended
Than the Son of God could be,
When from heaven He descended,
And became a child like thee.

Soft and easy is thy cradle,
Coarse and hard thy Saviour lay,
When His birthplace was a stable,
And His softest bed the hay.

Seeking the Heavenly Prize

Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve,
And press with vigor on;
A heavenly race demands thy zeal,
And an immortal crown.

A cloud of witnesses around
Hold thee in full survey:
Forget the steps already trod,
And onward urge thy way.

'Tis God's all-animating voice
That calls thee from on high;
'Tis His own hand presents the prize
To thine aspiring eye:

That prize with peerless glories bright
Which shall new luster boast,
When victors' wreaths and monarchs' gems
Shall blend in common dust.

Blest Saviour, introduced by Thee,
Have I my race begun;
And, crowned with victory, at Thy feet
I'll lay my honors down.

Philip Doddridge (1702-1751).

DODDRIDGE: PREACHER, TEACHER AND HYMNIST

Philip Doddridge was one of England's gifted evangelical preachers. Like
the Wesley brothers, he came from a large family. While there were
nineteen children in the Wesley family, Philip Doddridge was the last of
twenty children.

The religious background of the Doddridge family was significant.
Although his father was an oil merchant in London, his grandfather had
been one of the Independent ministers under the Commonwealth who were
ejected in 1662. Both of his parents were pious people, and Philip, who
was born June 26, 1702, was brought up in a religious atmosphere.

He was such a delicate child that his life was despaired of almost from
birth. His parents died while he was yet quite young, but kind friends
cared for the orphan boy and sent him to school.

Because he revealed such unusual gifts as a student, the Duchess of
Bedford offered to give him a university training on condition that he
would become a minister of the Church of England. This, however, Philip
declined to do, and he entered a nonconformist seminary instead.

At the age of twenty-one years he was ordained as pastor of the
Independent congregation at Kibworth, England. Six years later he began
his real life work at Northampton, where he served as the head of a
theological trainin