Is one of Doddridge's monitory hymns, once sung to J.C. Woodman's tune of “State St.” with the voice of both the Old and New Testaments in the last verse:
Ye sinners, seek His grace
Whose wrath ye cannot bear;
Fly to the shelter of His Cross,
And find Salvation there.
Jonathan Call Woodman was born in Newburyport, Mass., July 12, 1813, and was a teacher, composer, and compiler. Was organist of St. George's Chapel, in Flushing, L.I., and in 1858 published The Musical Casket. Died January, 1894. He wrote “State St.” for William B. Bradbury, in August, 1844.
“HASTEN SINNER, TO BE WISE”
Is one of the few unforgotten hymns of Thomas Scott, every second line repeating the solemn caution,—
Stay not for tomorrow's sun,
—and every line enforcing its exhortation with a new word, “To be wise,” “to implore,” “to return,” and “to be blest” were natural cumulatives that summoned and wooed the sinner careless and astray. It is a finished piece of work, but it owes its longevity less to its structural form than to its spirit. For generations it has been sung to “Pleyel's Hymn.”