Awake, sweet gratitude, and sing

Augustus M. Toplady. [Christ's Intercession.] Written by Augustus Montague Toplady, this expansive hymn on the heavenly priesthood and intercession of Christ was first published in the Gospel Magazine in 1771, consisting of 10 stanzas of 6 lines. Following its appearance in the magazine, abbreviated selections were quickly compiled for congregational use. Chief among these was Dr. John Rippon's Baptist Selection (1787), which served as the primary text source for most subsequent British and American hymnals. The full original ten-stanza text was preserved in Daniel Sedgwick's reprint of Toplady's Hymns (1860, page 150). It is a curious historical omission that Toplady himself left this hymn out of his own compiled volume, Psalms and Hymns (1776), and it was likewise omitted from a prominent 1856 edition of his poetic works. Despite these exclusions by its author, the hymn established a durable place in evangelical hymnology through its uplifting theme of Christ pleading before the heavenly throne on behalf of His redeemed people.