Bi-Weekly Hymn Spotlight: Come Down, O Love Divine

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Come down, O love divine,

seek thou this soul of mine,

and visit it with thine own ardor glowing;

O Comforter, draw near,

within my heart appear,

and kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.

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.

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.

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 Love create a place

wherein the Holy Spirit makes a dwelling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Words: Bianco da Siena, d. 1434;

trans. Richard Frederick Littledale, Jr., 1867

Brief Synopsis:

Not much is known about the author of this beautiful hymn. A Catholic mystic, Bianco Da Siena, was born in a small Italian hamlet, Anciolina. He later moved to Siena, where he worked as a wood carver. Bianco was a member of the Gesuati, living in a monastery. He composed his music in what is known as the "laude" form (a form that was used outside of the Catholic liturgy and was usually composed as "melody only.")

Bianco's hymn became better known after the Irish composer, Richard Littledale translated 4 of the hymn's stanzas and it was put in the English Hymnal in 1906. 

The English composer Ralph Vaughn Williams (1872-1958) later set the hymn to music in a way that draws the beauty and richness of the lyrics out. 


How is this hymn meaningful to believers, past and present?


I was introduced to this hymn through listening to a recording of musician Fernando Ortega performing it. The lyrics struck me with their simple poignancy and it seemed as though grace breathed through the notes. The hymn spoke to me of surrender--of surrendering one's whole soul, life, body, spirit, mind, and heart to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 

And then it spoke of that filling, that indescribable moment when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in a believer's heart and begins to mold and shape every aspect of his inner person. 

I grew up surrounded by and immersed in very Conservative theology. I am grateful for the solid, biblical foundation that the Lord provided for me through that experience. I was "grounded" in the Word, taught that the Word is unchanging, and convinced of the authority of the Scriptures. This was a great blessing to me. 

However, the Lord also allowed me to be influenced by a person very close to me to read the "mystics," and by mystics, I mean those believers who held that the Holy Spirit works in a believer's life powerfully and fruitfully, and most important--personally. 

Lilias Trotter, Oswald Chambers, Andrew Murray, and Amy Carmichael, among others had a profound effect upon me. Theirs and others' writing brought the Holy Spirit alive for me--because all of the right theology in the world doesn't produce holiness. Only the Holy Spirit's powerful working in a believer's heart does. 

More recently, the Lord led me to read A. W. Tozer's writing, and I have been tremendously blessed through that as well. I felt a kindred bond to him when I read these words that he spoke to renowned theologian Martyn Llloyd Jones:


'Once', Martyn Lloyd-Jones recalled, 'Dr. Tozer and I shared a conference years ago, and I appreciated his ministry and his fellowship very much. One day he said to me: 'Lloyd-Jones, you and I hold just about the same position on spiritual matters, but we have come to this position by different routes.' 'How do you mean?' I asked. 'Well,' Tozer replied, 'you came by way of the Puritans and I came by way of the mystics.' And, you know,' said Lloyd-Jones, 'he was right.'

I am profoundly grateful for "right" theology. I am also profoundly grateful for the personal, life-changing work of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life, the work of which this beautiful hymn speaks.  They are a two-fold cord that cannot be torn apart. 

May the Lord touch each of his people with a keen understanding of the Spirit's individual work in their lives and circumstances and may He grant to each of us that "yearning strong," of which Bianco da Siena writes. 

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Sources:
http://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-italian-mystic-composes-melodic-o-love-divine

http://www.lectionary.org/HymnStories/Come%20Down,%20O%20Love%20Divine.htm

The Life of A.W. Tozer: In Pursuit of God, by James L. Snyder 



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