Lyrics
Our blest Redeemer, ere He breathed
His tender last farewell,
A guide, a comforter, bequeathed
With us to dwell.
He came in semblance of a dove,
With sheltering wings outspread,
The holy balm of peace and love
On earth to shed.
He came in tongues of living flame,
To teach, convince, subdue;
All-powerful as the wind He came,
As viewless too.
He came sweet influence to impart,
A gracious, willing guest,
While He can find one humble heart
Wherein to rest.
And His that gentle voice we hear,
Soft as the breath of even,
That checks each fault, that calms each fear,
And speaks of Heav'n.
And every virtue we possess,
And every conquest won,
And every thought of holiness,
Are His alone.
Spirit of purity and grace,
Our weakness, pitying, see:
O make our hearts Thy dwelling place,
And worthier Thee.
Public domain hymn text (1829). Words by Harriet Auber.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Harriet Auber, an English hymn writer who spent much of her life in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, wrote 'Our Blest Redeemer, Ere He Breathed' in 1829, drawing on Acts 2's account of the Holy Spirit's arrival at Pentecost, described there as tongues of fire resting on the gathered disciples.
The hymn's opening frames Pentecost not as a surprising, isolated event but as the fulfillment of a promise Christ made personally before His ascension, His 'tender last farewell,' tying the Spirit's coming directly back to Jesus's own final words to His disciples in John 14-16.
Its third verse draws together two distinct biblical images of the Spirit's arrival, the visible 'tongues of living flame' from Acts 2 and the invisible force of wind Jesus uses to describe the Spirit in John 3, holding both the seen and unseen aspects of that same event together in a single verse.
Auber published relatively little compared to more prolific hymn writers of her era, but this hymn became one of the standard English-language texts for Pentecost and Whitsunday observances, valued for its clear, careful attention to the specific biblical details of the Spirit's coming.
One recurring image, the Spirit as 'a gracious, willing guest' who remains only 'while He can find one humble heart wherein to rest,' introduces a note of genuine contingency, suggesting the Spirit's presence, though freely given, is not forced on an unwilling or proud heart.
That emphasis on humility as the condition for the Spirit's continued presence reflected a broader nineteenth-century evangelical concern with genuine, ongoing spiritual receptivity rather than treating conversion as a single, self-sufficient past event.
The hymn's full seven stanzas move through the Spirit's arrival in flame and wind, then in the gentler images of a dove and a still, soft voice, before closing with the singer's own prayer, 'O make our hearts Thy dwelling place,' echoing back to the opening promise that the Spirit would come to dwell with His people.
The hymn remained a standard Pentecost text across English hymnals for generations, notable for the way it carefully threads together multiple separate biblical images of the Spirit's arrival into a single, coherent devotional picture.
