Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost

Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost, Taught by Thee we covet most

Author: Christopher Wordsworth (1862)
Published in 148 hymnals

Choral

Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost

Full Text

1 Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost,
Taught by Thee we covet most
Of Thy gifts at Pentecost,
Holy, heavenly love.

2 Love is kind, and suffers long,
Love is meek, and thinks no wrong,
Love than death itself more strong;
Therefore, give us love.

3 Prophecy will fade away,
Melting in the light of day;
Love will ever with us stay;
Therefore, give us love.

4 Faith will vanish into sight;
Hope be emptied in delight;
Love in heaven will shine more bright;
Therefore, give us love.

5 Faith and hope and love we see,
Joining hand in hand, agree,
But the greatest of the three,
And the best, is love.

6 From the overshadowing
Of Thy gold and silver wing,
Shed on us, who to Thee sing,
Holy, heavenly love.

Amen.

The Hymnal: revised and enlarged as adopted by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord 1892

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Author: Christopher Wordsworth

Christopher Wordsworth--nephew of the great lake-poet, William Wordsworth--was born in 1807. He was educated at Winchester, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A., with high honours, in 1830; M.A. in 1833; D.D. in 1839. He was elected Fellow of his College in 1830, and public orator of the University in 1836; received Priest's Orders in 1835; head master of Harrow School in 1836; Canon of Westminster Abbey in 1844; Hulsean Lecturer at Cambridge in 1847-48; Vicar of Stanford-in-the-Vale, Berks, in 1850; Archdeacon of Westminster, in 1865; Bishop of Lincoln, in 1868. His writings are numerous, and some of them very valuable. Most of his works are in prose. His "Holy Year; or, Hymns for Sundays, Holidays, and other occ… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Related Texts

First Line: Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost, Taught by Thee we covet most
Title: Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost
Author: Christopher Wordsworth (1862)
Meter: 7.7.7.5
Language: English
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Notes

Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost . Bishop C. Wordsworth of Lincoln. [Quinquagesima.—Love.] First published in his Holy Year, 1st edition, 1862, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines, and appointed for Quinquagesima, being a metrical paraphrase of the Epistle for that day. It is found either in full or in an abbreviated form in several collections, including some of the Public Schools, and a few in American common use. In Martineau's Hymns, 1873, it begins, "Mighty Spirit, Gracious Guide."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Tune

CAPETOWN

CAPETOWN was originally composed by Friedrich Filitz (b. Arnstadt, Thuringia, Germany, 1804; d. Munich, Germany, 1876) as a setting for the text "Morgenglanz der Ewigkeit"; that text and tune were included in Vierstimmiges Choralbuch (1847), a hymnal compiled by Baron Christian von Bunsen and publis…

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CHARITY (Stainer)


ANDERSON


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Timeline

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Instances

Instances (13)TextImageAudioScore
Church Hymnal, Fifth Edition #312
Church Hymnary, Fourth Edition #627Text
Common Praise #653
Complete Anglican Hymns Old & New #250
Complete Mission Praise #198
Hymnal 1982: according to the use of the Episcopal Church #612TextImage
Hymnal Supplement II #73
Hymns Ancient & Modern, New Standard Edition #154
Hymns Old and New: New Anglican #184
Presbyterian Hymnal #318TextImage
Scripture Song Database #1292
The New Century Hymnal #61Image
Voices United: The Hymn and Worship Book of The United Church of Canada #193Text
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