166 OUR HYMNS :
which caused his death. He was married to a lady, Jane Bryant, of Clack, Wiltshire, and had a family of three children. His friend John Gambold, a bishop of the Moravian Church, wrote a poem in honour of his memory. Cennick wrote some volumes of "Village Discourses," and was the author of the "Graces" which are so often sung on public religious occasions. Before meat :
" Be present at our table, Lord," &c.
After meat : -
" We bless thee, Lord, for this our food," &c.
The latter has four additional lines that have ceased to be used :
" Praise shall our grateful lips employ, While life and plenty we enjoy, Till worthy we adore thy name, While banqueting with Christ, the Lamb."
Other works by him were, " His Life, written by himself," 1745 ; " An Account of the late Riot in Exeter," 1745 ; " A Letter to the little Children; especially to those who want to know how to go to heaven," fifth edition, 1782; " Nunc Dimittis, lines written by John Cennick," 1757 ; " An account of the Conversion of G. Lee, who was executed." One of his poems is a piece of thirty- six verses, describing elaborately his remarkable re ligious experience.
In it he says :
" Dangers were always in my path, And fears of death, and endless wrath : While pale dejection in me reign d, I often wept, by grief constraiu d.
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Through every day I wailed my fall Three years of grief exceeded all ! No rest I knew ! a slave to sin ! With scarce a spark of hope between."
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