HOLY SCRIPTURES
SDAH 272
Give me the Bible,
star of gladness gleaming,
To cheer the wanderer
lone and tempest tossed,
Text
1
Give me the Bible,
star of gladness gleaming,
To cheer the wanderer
lone and tempest tossed,
No storm can hide that
peaceful radiance beaming
Since Jesus came
to seek and save the lost.
Refrain
Give me the Bible–
holy message shining,
Thy light shall guide me
in the narrow way.
Precept and promise,
law and love combining,
‘Til night shall vanish
in eternal day.
2
Give me the Bible
when my heart is broken,
When sin and grief have
filled my soul with fear,
Give me the precious
words by Jesus spoken,
Hold up faith’s lamp
to show my Savior near.
3
Give me the Bible,
all my steps enlighten,
Teach me the danger
of these realms below,
That lamp of safety,
o’er the gloom shall brighten,
That light alone
the path of peace can show.
Hymn Info
Biblical Reference
(a) Luke 19:10 (b) 1 John 4:18 (c) Ps 119:105 (r) Matt 7:14
Author
Priscilla J. Owens (1829-1907)
Metrical Number
11.10.11.10.Ref.
Composer
E.S. Lorenz (1854-1942)
Get the hymn sheet in other keys here
Notes
Get to know the hymns a little deeper with the SDA Hymnal Companion. Use our song leader’s notes to engage your congregation in singing with understanding. Even better, involve kids in learning this hymn with our homeschooling materials.
All Scriptures is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching. To get wisdom, we must study the Word of God. (Lesson 8, 4th Quarter 2020 – Tuesday, Moses and the Prophet, 11/17/2020)
As we approach the last days of earth’s history, we need more than ever to study and live according to God’s Word. Only Scripture can provide us with an authoritative explanation of the world we live in. After all, Scripture tells the story of the great controversy between good and evil, and thus reveals that human history will close with the obliteration of evil and the establishment of God’s eternal kingdom. The more we study the Scriptures, the better we can understand the contemporary situation of the world and our place in it, as well as our reasons for hope amid a world that offers none. (Lesson 10, 1st Quarter 2020 – Sunday, Centrality of God’s Word, 3/1/2020)
These words were written by Priscilla Jane Owens, born July 21, 1829. She was a public school teacher, and also a Sunday school teacher for 50 years in the Methodist church in Baltimore, Maryland. The stanza omitted is:
4. Give me the Bible, lamp of life immortal,
Hold up that splendor by the open grave;
Show me the light from heaven’s shining port,
Show me the glory gilding Jordan’s wave.
Owens wrote poetry and prose for the Methodist Recorder and the Christian Standard. Her other hymns in SDAH are No. 340, “Jesus Saves,” and No. 534, “Will Your Anchor Hold?” She was born and spent all her life in Baltimore, Maryland, dying there on December 5, 1907.
The music was composed by Edmund Simon Lorenz, of Dayton, Ohio, a minister of the United Brethren Church. It was printed in his Holy Voices. Born near Canal Fulton, Ohio, July 13, 1854, Lorenz graduated from Yale with a B.D. degree, then pursued further study in music at the University of Leipzig, Germany. At the age of 20 he served as a music editor for the first United Brethren hymnal with music, Hymns of the Sanctuary, 1874. For two years he was president of Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pennsylvania, but his health broke, and during a period of recuperation he concentrated on music. He began what became the very successful Lorenz and Company, music publisher, putting out two periodicals, The Choir Leader and The Choir Herald, and other church music and organ magazines. Besides composing hymn tunes and gospel songs, he published several books: Practical Church Music, 1909; Church Music, 1923; Music in Work and Worship, 1925; and The Singing Church, 1937. He kept us his activity in this thriving music business right up until his death July 11, 1942, at age 88, in Dayton, Ohio.
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