Philip Doddridge (1702–51) was an English Nonconformist theologian, pastor, social reformer, educator, and hymn writer. His devotional classic The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul (1745) has been much translated.
Born in London, Doddridge attended the Dissenting academy at Kibworth, Leicestershire, and became a pastor to an independent congregation at Northampton in 1729. Throughout the 1730s and 1740s, Doddridge continued his academic and pastoral work. He led the Northampton Academy since 1730, helping it develop into a center for training Congregational and then United Reformed Church ministers.
Doddridge also published The Family Expositor (6 vols., 1739–56,) Life of Colonel Gardiner (1747,) and a Course of Lectures on Pneumatology, Ethics and Divinity (1763.) Doddridge also published several courses of sermons. His many hymns include “Awake, My Soul, Stretch Every Nerve” and “O Happy Day, That Fixed My Choice.” Doddridge’s Correspondence and Diary (5 vols., 1829–31) was edited by his great-grandson.
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Awake, my soul! stretch every nerve, And press with vigour on; A heavenly race demands thy zeal, And an immortal crown.
—Philip Doddridge
Topics: Zeal
He is the wisest and happiest man, who, by constant attention of thought discovers the greatest opportunity of doing good, and breaks through every opposition that he may improve these opportunities.
—Philip Doddridge
Topics: Man
Let us live while we live.
—Philip Doddridge
Topics: Life and Living
The difference between rising at five and seven o’clock in the morning, for forty years, supposing a man to go to bed at the same hour at night, is nearly equivalent to the addition of ten years to a man’s life.
—Philip Doddridge
If nobody loves you, be sure it is your own fault.
—Philip Doddridge
Topics: Love
Live while you live, the epicure would say, and seize the pleasures of the passing day.—Live while you live, the sacred preacher cries, and give to God each moment as it flies.—Lord, in my views, let both united be. I live in pleasure while I live to thee.
—Philip Doddridge
Topics: Life, Time Management
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