Lord of Life, pro­phet­ic Spi­rit,
In sweet mea­sure ev­er­more
To the ho­ly child­ren deal­ing
Each his gift from Thy rich store;
Bless Thy fa­mi­ly, ador­ing
As in Is­ra­el’s schools of yore.

Holy Je­sus, Eye most lov­ing,
On each young dis­ci­ple bent;
Voice that, seem­ing earth­ly, sum­moned
Samuel to the aw­ful tent;
Hand that cast Eli­jah’s man­tle;
Thine be all Thy grace hath lent.

As to Thine own se­ven­ty scho­lars
Thou of old Thine arm didst reach,
Under Thy ma­jes­tic sha­dow
Guiding them to do and teach,
Till their hour of so­lemn unc­tion;
So be with us all and each.

God and Fa­ther of all spi­rits,
Whose dread call young Jo­shua knew,
Forty days in dark­ness wait­ing
With Thy ser­vant good and true,
Thence to wage Thy war des­cend­ing,
Own us, Lord, Thy cham­pi­ons, too.

One Thy light, the tem­ple fill­ing,
Holy, ho­ly, ho­ly Three;
Meanest men and bright­est an­gels
Wait alike the word from Thee;
Highest mus­ings, low­li­est wor­ship,
Must their pre­pa­ra­tion be.

Now Thou speak­est—hear we trem­bling—
From the glo­ry comes a voice.
Who ac­cepts th’Al­migh­ty’s mis­sion?
Who will make Christ’s work his choice?
Who for Us pro­claim to sin­ners,
Turn, be­lieve, en­dure, re­joice?

Here are we, Re­deem­er, send us!
But be­cause Thy work is fire,
And our lips, un­clean and earth­ly,
Breathe no breath of high de­sire;
Send Thy se­raph from the al­tar
Veiled, but in his bright at­tire.

Cause him, Lord, to fly full swift­ly
With the mys­tic coal in hand,
Sin con­sum­ing, soul trans­form­ing,
(Faith and love will un­der­stand);
Touch our lips, Thou awful Mer­cy
With Thine own keen heal­ing brand.

Thou didst come that fire to kin­dle;
Fain would we Thy torch­es prove,
Far and wide Thy bea­cons light­ing
With th’un­dy­ing spark of love:
Only feed our flame, we pray Thee,
With Thy breath­ings from above.

Now to God, the soul’s cre­at­or,
To His Word and wis­dom sure,
To His all en­light­en­ing Spi­rit,
Patron of the frail and poor,
Three in One, be praise and glo­ry,
Here and while the heav’ns en­dure.