O God, Beneath Thy Guiding Hand

Representative Text

1 O God, beneath Thy guiding hand
Our exiled fathers crossed the sea,
And when they trod the wintry strand,
With prayer and psalm they worshiped Thee.

2 Thou heard'st, well pleased, the song, the prayer;
Thy blessing came, and still its pow'r
Shall onward through all ages bear
The memory of that holy hour.

3 Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God
Came with those exiles o'er the waves,
And where their pilgrim feet have trod,
The God they trusted guards their graves.

4 And here Thy name, O God of love,
Their children's children shall adore,
Till these eternal hills remove,
And spring adorns the earth no more.

Amen.
Amen.


Source: Hymns for a Pilgrim People: a congregational hymnal #300

Author: Leonard Bacon

Leonard Bacon, D.D., was born in Detroit (where his father was a missionary to the Indians), February 19, 1802, and educated at Yale college and at Andover. In 1825 he was ordained Pastor of the Centre Church, New Haven, and retained that charge until 1866, when he was appointed Professor of Theology in Yale Divinity School. This professorship he resigned in 1871; but till his death in 1881, he was Lecturer on Church Polity. He died December 23, 1881. Dr. Bacon rendered important service to hymnology both as writer and compiler. While a student at Andover, he edited an important and now rare tract entitled Hymns and Sacred Songs for the Monthly Concert [of Prayer for Missions], Andover, September 1823. This contained the three hymns fo… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: O God, beneath Thy guiding hand
Title: O God, Beneath Thy Guiding Hand
Author: Leonard Bacon (1833)
Meter: 8.8.8.8
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

In 1845 Dr. Bacon was joint compiler with Dr. E. T. Fitch, and several others, of Psalms & Hymns for Christian Use and Worship,, pub. "by the General Association of Connecticut."
To this collection he contributed the hymn following:-

  • O God, beneath They guiding hand. American Anniversary Hymn. This is a favorite American Anniversary hymn. It is abbreviated and altered from his hymn, "The Sabbath morn is as bright and calm," which he wrote for the Bicentenary of New Haven, 1833. In this revised form it was first published as above, No. 619, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and appointed "For the twenty-second of December."

    --Excerpt from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

  • Tune

    DUKE STREET

    First published anonymously in Henry Boyd's Select Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (1793), DUKE STREET was credited to John Hatton (b. Warrington, England, c. 1710; d, St. Helen's, Lancaster, England, 1793) in William Dixon's Euphonia (1805). Virtually nothing is known about Hatton, its composer,…

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    WAREHAM (Knapp)

    William Knapp (b. Wareham, Dorsetshire, England, 1698; d. Poole, Dorsetshire, 1768) composed WAREHAM, so named for his birthplace. A glover by trade, Knapp served as the parish clerk at St. James's Church in Poole (1729-1768) and was organist in both Wareham and Poole. Known in his time as the "coun…

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    Timeline

    Instances

    Instances (1 - 7 of 7)

    A New Hymnal for Colleges and Schools #26

    Ambassador Hymnal #633

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    Hymns for a Pilgrim People #300

    Hymns of the Christian Life #588

    Rejoice in God #41

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    The Cyber Hymnal #4875

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    Worship and Service Hymnal #521

    Include 276 pre-1979 instances
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