Revelation 1:8I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,
saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
Words: William C. Gannett, in A Chorus of Faith, 1893.
Music: Nicaea John B. Dykes, in Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1861 (🔊 pdf nwc).
Bring, O morn, thy music!
Night, thy starlit silence!
Oceans, laugh the rapture
To the storm winds coursing free!
Suns and planets chorus,
Thou art our creator,
Who wert, and art,
And evermore shalt be!
Life and death, Thy creatures,
Praise Thee, mighty Giver!
Praise and prayer are rising
In Thy beast and bird and tree:
Lo! they praise and vanish,
Vanish at Thy bidding,
Who wert, and art,
And evermore shalt be!
Light us! lead us! love us!
Cry Thy groping nations,
Pleading in the thousand tongues,
But naming only Thee,
Weaving blindly out
Thy holy, happy purpose,
Who wert, and art,
And evermore shalt be!
Life nor death can part us,
O Thou Love eternal,
Shepherd of the wandering star
And souls that wayward flee!
Homeward draws the Spirit
To Thy Spirit yearning,
Who wert, and art
And evermore shalt be!