Thy Word is truth.
John 17:17
Words: H. A. César Malan, Chants de Sion 1832, number 78 (Le Monde Peut Vanter Sa Futile Science). Translated from French to English by Jane E. Arnold, Lyra Evangelica (London: John F. Shaw, 1866), pages 161–62.
Music: Arizona Robert H. Earnshaw, in The Book of Praise (Toronto, Ontario: Oxford University Press, 1918) (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good photo of Arnold or Earnshaw (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
The world may boast the brilliant light
Of science, which oft deceives;
But oft, in clouds of error’s night
Her dazzled votaries she leaves.
What shall man’s intellect avail,
When God His judgments shall display?
How soon its boasted power shall fail
Before the terrors of that day.
Jesus! Thy words alone impart
Eternal truth and sure repose;
No doubts shall overwhelm the heart,
Which Thee and Thy salvation knows.
How precious to my thirsting soul
The truths Thy sacred words convey;
Mighty to strengthen and console,
And which shall never pass away.
Here will I rest, beneath Thy cross,
Where faith the way of life discerns,
And counting all things else but loss,
My soul eternal wisdom learns.