This is a Pentecost hymn, that I covered many years ago from its appearance in As One Voice.
The text is six hundred years or so old, by Bianco da Siena (NB Wikipedia’s incorrect date of death) and translated by Richard Littledale (death date correct this time) in the 1800s.
The setting is DOWN AMPNEY by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
I tried to make a better backing than last time:
The text has variants: these are the words in this hymnal:
1 Come down, O Love divine,
Seek thou this soul of mine,
And visit it with thine own ardour glowing;
O Comforter, draw near,
Within my heart appear,
And kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.2 O let it freely burn,
Till earthly passions turn
To dust and ashes, in its heat consuming;
And let thy glorious light
Shine ever on my sight,
And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.3 Let holy charity
Mine outward vesture be,
And lowliness become mine inner clothing:
True lowliness of heart,
Which takes the humbler part
And o’er its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.4 And so the yearning strong,
With which the soul will long,
Shall far outpass the power of human telling;
For none can guess its grace,
Till he become the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes a dwelling.
This hymnal has the tune in the key of C rather than the usual key of D − Thanks be to God.
