Scripture Verse

God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16

Introduction

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Johann Bach (1685–1750)

Words: Man­dell Creigh­ton, 1900.

Music: Das walt Gott Va­ter Da­ni­el Vet­ter, Mu­sic­al­ische Kirch-und Haus-Er­götz­lich­keit, part 2 (Leip­zig, Ger­ma­ny: 1713). Adapt­ed and har­mo­nized by Jo­hann S. Bach (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

portrait
Mandell Creighton (1843–1901)
National Portrait Gallery

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[Creighton] wrote [this hymn] in Lon­don, early in 1900. He gave a co­py in MS. to the Hon. Sar­ah Kath­leen, daugh­ter of the 4th Lord of Lyt­tle­ton, who had it print­ed, and it was first used on Ap­ril 26, 1900, at St. Mar­ga­ret’s Church, West­min­ster, on the oc­ca­sion of her mar­riage to Mr. J. C. Bai­ley, of Eg­er­ton Gar­dens, Lon­don.

Julian, p. 1626

Lyrics

O Thou who gavest pow­er to love
That we might fix our hearts on Thee,
Preparing us for joys above
By that which here on earth we see:

Thy Spir­it trains our souls to know
The grow­ing pur­pose of Thy will,
And gives to love the pow­er to show
That pur­pose grow­ing larg­er still;

Larger, as love to rev­er­ent eyes
Makes ma­ni­fest an­oth­er soul,
And shows to life a rich­er prize,
A clear­er course, a nob­ler goal.

Lord, grant Thy ser­vants who imp­lore
Thy bless­ing on the hearts they blend,
That from that un­ion ev­er­more
New joys may blos­som to the end.

Make what is best in each com­bine
To purge all earth­ly dross away,
To strength­en, pu­ri­fy, re­fine,
To beau­ti­fy each com­ing day.

So may they hand in hand ad­vance
Along life’s path from trou­bles free;
Brave to meet ad­verse cir­cum­stance
Because their love points up to Thee.