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Philadelphia

I

Thus saith the Holy One and true,
To his beloved faithful few,
“Of heaven and hell I hold the keys,
To shut or open as I please.

II

“I know thy works, and I approve,
Though small thy strength, sincere thy love;
Go on, my word and name to own,
For none shall rob thee of thy crown.

III

“Before thee see my mercy’s door
Stands open wide to shut no more;
Fear not temptation’s fiery day,
For I will be thy strength and stay.

IV

“Thou hast my promise, hold it fast,
The trying hour will soon be past;
Rejoice, for lo! I quickly come
To take thee to my heav’nly home.

V

“A pillar there no more to move,
Inscribed with all my names of love,
A monument of mighty grace,
Thou shalt for ever have a place.”

VI

Such is the conqueror’s reward,
Prepared and promised by the Lord!
Let him that hath the ear of faith,
Attend to what the Spirit saith.

Where this text comes from

First published in Olney Hymns (1779). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1] [2] [3]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-15.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/john-newton_william-cowper_olney-hymns, book-1.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (2)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L24.

Cite this poem

John Newton (1725–1807). “Philadelphia.” First published in Olney Hymns (1779). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/john-newton/philadelphia/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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