LYRICS
| Meter: | 8 8 8 8 (L.M.)
| | Writer(s): | Gregory I (the Great)
| | Transl/Adapt: | John Mason Neale
| | Dates: | 1851
| | Bible Refs: | Gen 1:3
| Hymns Ancient & Modern, New Edition
| 1904
| 15
| Mirfield Mission Hymn Book
| 1955
| 200
| New English Hymnal
| 1985
| 150
| The Book of Common Praise - Revised
| 1938
| 820
| The English Hymnal
| 1906
| 51
| The Hymnal 1940
| 1940
| 163
| The Hymnal 1982
| 1982
| 27
|
| 1. O blest Creator of the light,
Who mak’st the day
with radiance bright,
And o’er the forming world didst call
The light from chaos first of all.
2. Whose wisdom joined in meet array
The morn and eve,
and named them day:
Night comes with all its darkling fears;
Regard Thy people’s
prayers and tears.
3. Lest, sunk in sin,
and whelmed with strife,
They lose the gift of endless life;
While thinking but the thoughts of time,
They weave new chains
of woe and crime.
4. But grant them grace
that they may strain
The heavenly gate and prize to gain:
Each harmful lure aside to cast,
And purge away each error past.
5. O Father, that we ask be done,
Through Jesus Christ, Thine only Son;
Who, with the Holy Ghost and Thee,
Doth live and reign eternally.
|