Scripture Verse

He will be our guide even to the end. Psalm 48:14

Introduction

Words: Ro­bert Daw­son (1836–1906).

Music: St. Ful­bert Hen­ry J. Gaunt­lett, 1849 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Daw­son (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Henry J. Gauntlett (1805–1876)
National Portrait Gallery

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Lyrics

Eternal Fa­ther! who can tell
The years of Thy right hand?
Like sun­beams bright, but num­ber­less,
Or as the ocean’s sand.

Thine age­less age no lim­it knows,
No dawn be­gan Thy day,
Nor ev­en­ing shade shall ev­er fall
Upon Thy glo­ri­ous way.

All time is but a fleet­ing wave
Upon Thy calm, deep sea,
A fad­ing leaf that feeb­ly falls
From life’s eter­nal tree.

Yet un­to Thee, our fleet­ing years,
Our fad­ing days, are known,
And ev­ery hour its mes­sage bears
Up to th’eter­nal throne.

Old year, fare­well! Thou’rt gone to God,
Gone to re­cord our life,
Its poor suc­cess, its wast­ed hours,
Its oft un­wor­thy strife.

New year, all hail! Thou’rt come from God,
Blest be thy dawn­ing bright!
Blest be thy swift­ly fleet­ing hours!
And blest thy ev­en­ing light!

Into the hand of Him who died,
Who ev­er­more doth live,
This strange and so­lemn New Year’s path
In trust­ful pray­er we give.

Enough for us to hear His voice,
To feel His guid­ing hand,
To know each step is bring­ing us
Nearer the bet­ter land.