Anglican
Hymn #297 (written in 1712).
The father of Joseph Addison was Launcelot Addison, rector of Milston, near Amesbury, in Wiltshire, England, and afterward he became Dean of Lichfield. Joseph was born May 1, 1672, and he grew up under his father’s staunch feelings for the Episcopal Church and hatred of all that was Puritan. He was enabled to travel about and more than once experienced the Lord’s good hand in preserving him. In 1700 he left on a voyage to Marseilles and encountered a dreadful storm in the Mediterranean. Despair was in every heart, but Addison was calm. Later he wrote a poem showing that the Lord was his defense. Little information as to his conversion, but the expressions in his hymns and poetry indicate his faith in the Lord. He was assailed both by asthma and dropsy and at the early age of 47 he left this scene. Just before he died on June 17, 1719, he called the Earl of Warwick (his stepson) and said to him: “See in what peace a Christian can die.”
Through all eternity to Thee
A joyful song raise;
But, oh! eternity’s too short
To utter all Thy praise.