Lo, in the wilderness a voice

Representative Text

1 Lo, in the wilderness a voice
'make straight the way' is crying:
when men are turning from the light,
and hope and love seem dying,
the prophet comes to make us clean:
'there standeth one you have not seen,
Whose voice you are denying.'

2 God give us grace to hearken now
to those who come to warn us,
give sight and strength, that we may kill
the vices that have torn us,
lest love professed should disappear
in creeds of hate, contempt, and fear,
that crush and overturn us.

3 When from the vineyard cruel men
cast out the heavenly powers
and Christendom denies its Lord,
the world in ruin cowers.
Now come, O God, in thy great might!
Unchanged, unchanging is thy right,
unswayed thy justice towers.


Source: CPWI Hymnal #776

Author: Percy Dearmer

Dearmer, Percy, M.A., son of Thomas Dearmer, was born in London, Feb. 27, 1867, and educated at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford (B.A. 1890, M.A. 1896). He was ordained D. 1891, P. 1892, and has been since 1901 Vicar of S. Mary the Virgin, Primrose Hill, London. He has been Secretary of the London Branch of the Christian Social Union since 1891, and is the author of The Parson's Handbook, 1st edition, 1899, and other works. He was one of the compilers of the English Hymnal, 1906, acting as Secretary and Editor, and contributed to it ten translations (38, 95, 150, 160, 165, 180, 215, 237, 352, 628) and portions of two others (242, 329), with the following originals:— 1. A brighter dawn is breaking. Easter. Suggested by… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Lo, in the wilderness a voice
Author: Percy Dearmer
Meter: 8.7.8.7.8.8.7
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Tune

KIRKEN DEN ER ET GAMMELT HUS

Composed for this text by Ludwig M. Lindeman (b. Trondheim, Norway, 1812; d. Oslo, Norway, 1887), KIRKEN was published in Wilhelm A. Wexel's Christelige Psalmer (1840). A bar form (AAB) tune in the Dorian mode, it is a suitably rugged, folk-like tune for this text, with a satisfying climax in line 6…

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LUTHER'S HYMN


MIT FREUDEN ZART

MIT FREUDEN ZART has some similarities to the French chanson "Une pastourelle gentille" (published by Pierre Attaingnant in 1529) and to GENEVAN 138 (138). The tune was published in the Bohemian Brethren hymnal Kirchengesänge (1566) with Vetter's text "Mit Freuden zart su dieser Fahrt." Splendid mu…

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Timeline

Instances

Instances (1 - 4 of 4)
Text

CPWI Hymnal #776

Hymns Ancient and Modern, New Standard Edition #384

TextPage Scan

The New English Hymnal #170a

Text

The New English Hymnal #170b

Include 2 pre-1979 instances
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