Scripture Verse

He changeth the times and the seasons. Daniel 2:21

Introduction

Words: Ot­ti­well Heg­in­bo­thom (1744–1768).

Music: Pen­te­cost (Boyd) Will­iam Boyd, 1864. First pub­lished in Thirty-Two Hymn Tunes Com­posed by Mem­bers of the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Ox­ford, 1868 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Heg­in­bo­thom or Boyd (head-and-shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els), would you ?

Lyrics

Great God, let all my tuneful powers
Awake, and sing Thy mighty name;
Thy hand revolves my circling hours,
Thy hand from which my being came.

Seasons and moons still rolling round,
In beauteous order, speak Thy praise;
And years, with smiling mercy crowned,
To Thee successive honors raise.

To Thee I raise the annual song,
To Thee the grateful tribute give;
My God doth still my years prolong,
And ’midst unnumbered deaths, I live.

He bids each season on my soul
Its sweetest, kindest influence shed;
And all the periods, as they roll,
Shower countless blessings on my head.

My life, my health, my friends, I owe
All to Thy vast, unbounded love;
Ten thousand precious gifts below,
And hope of nobler joys above.

Thus will I sing, till nature cease,
Till sense and language are no more,
And, after death, Thy boundless grace,
Through everlasting years, adore.