1 O holy Lord, content to fill
In lowly home the lowliest place,
Thy childhood’s law a mother’s will,
Obedience meek thy brightest grace;
2 Lead every child that bears thy Name
To walk in thine own guileless way,
To dread the touch of sin and shame,
And humbly, like thyself, obey. A-men.
3 Gather thy lambs within thine arm,
And gently in thy bosom bear;
Keep them, O Lord, from hurt and harm,
And bid them rest forever there.
4 So shall they waiting here below,
Like thee their Lord, a little span,
In wisdom and in stature grow,
And favor with both God and man.
Amen.
Source: Service Book and Hymnal of the Lutheran Church in America #334
First Line: | O Holy Lord, content to live [fill] |
Author: | William Walsham How |
Meter: | 8.8.8.8 |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
O Holy Lord, content to live [dwell —fill]. Bishop W. W. How. [A Child's Hymn.] Written in 1850, and 1st published in The Parish Choir in 1851. In 1854 it was repeated in Morrell & How's Psalms & Hymns, No. 65, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines. When included in Hymns Ancient & Modern, in 1861, considerable alterations were made in the text, and it began, "O Holy Lord, content to dwell.” This first line, but not the alterations in detail, was adopted in the enlarged edition of Morrell & How's Psalms & Hymns, 1864. For the S. P. C. K. Church Hymns, 1871, it was again rewritten, this time by Bishop How, as “O Holy Lord, content to fill." This is the author's authorised text, and is repeated in his Hymns, 1886. All these texts are in common use.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)