HOLY SCRIPTURES
SDAH 275
O God of light, Your Word, a lamp unfailing,
Shall pierce the darkness of our earthbound way
And show Your grace,
Your plan for us unveiling,
Text
1
O God of light, Your Word, a lamp unfailing,
Shall pierce the darkness of our earthbound way
And show Your grace,
Your plan for us unveiling,
And guide our footsteps to the perfect day.
2
From days of old, through blind and willful ages,
Though we rebelled, You gently sought again,
And spoke through saints,
Apostles, prophets, sages,
Who wrote with eager or reluctant pen.
3
Undimmed by time, those words are still revealing
To sinful hearts Your justice and Your grace;
And questing mortals longing for Your healing,
See Your compassion in the Savior’s face.
4
To all the world Your summons You are sending,
Through all the earth, to ever land and race,
That myriad tongues, in one great anthem blending,
May praise and celebrate Your gift of grace.
Hymn Info
Biblical Reference
(a) Ps 119:105; Prov 4:18 (b) 2 Pet 1:21 (c) Matt 9:36 (d) Rev 14:6
Author
Sarah E. Taylor (1883-1954) alt.
Performance Suggestions
Unison
Copyright
Words copyright 1952. Renewal 1980 by The Hymn Society of America, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129. Used by permission. Music copyright 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship. Used by permission of Augsburg Publishing House.
Hymn Tune
ATKINSON
Metrical Number
11.10.11.10.
Composer
H. Barrie Cabena (1933-)
Hymn Score
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Piano Accompaniment
[wonderplugin_audio id=”275″]
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.
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)
The Hymn Society of America is the source of a number of contemporary texts in SDAH .In the 1952 the society conducted a search for new hymns that express confidence in the Holy Bible. Out of some 550 entries this one was chosen for first award and was published in Ten New Hymns on the Bible, 1952. In September of that year it was sung in thousands of churches across North America, celebrating the publication of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible.
Sarah Ellen Taylor was born December 30, 1883, in Stockport, England, the daughter of an enthusiastic lay preacher. In 1892 the father brought the family to Cumberland, Rhode Island, where for many years he pastored the Primitive Methodist Church. Sarah was active in the church, teaching a class at age 15. She went to Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, and earned the B.A. and M.A. degrees before going to teach Latin, Greek, and English literature in mission schools in Alabama and Virginia. From 1917 to 1930 she was back at Cumberland, teaching in the high school, and for the next 19 years before retirement in 1949, she was a teacher at Central Falls High School. She died October 5, 1954.
ATKINSON is named after Gordon Atkinson, is a lifelong friend of the composer, who in 1978 was president of the Royal Canadian College of Organists. Cabena said it was written, “like many such tunes, on an impulse when I happened to feel that opening downward phrase, using the notes of the G chord, as the descending wisdom of God to give us, through the pen of the inspired men of old, the Holy Scriptures.
Harold Barrie Cabena is one of Canada’s most distinguished musicians, being an organist, composer, and teacher. Born August 12, 1933, in Melbourne, Australia, he privately studied music there before going to the Royal College of Music, London, where he trained under John Dykes Bower and Herbert Howells, earning the senior prize in organ. In 1957 he went to Canada to be director of music at First-St. Andrew’s United Church, London, Ontario. In 1970 he began teaching on the faculty of Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario. He has served on the examining committee for the Royal Canadian College of Organists and was president of that organization from 1967 to 1969. He was toured extensively as a virtuoso recitalist. His compositions total more than 100, including organ works, anthems, piano works, Masses, an opera for children, and choral pieces. In 1972 he was awarded the Silver Medal of L’Academie Francaise- Arts, Sciences, Letters, for services to French music.
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