Lord, it is good for us to be

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Lord, it is good for us to be

Author: Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
Published in 64 hymnals

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Representative Text

1 Lord, it is good for us to be
High on the mountain here with Thee;
Where stand revealed to mortal gaze
Those glorious saints of other days;
Who once received on Horeb's height
The eternal laws of truth and right;
Or caught the still small whisper, higher
Than storm, than earthquake, or than fire.

2 Lord, it is good for us to be
Entranced, enwrapt, alone with Thee;
And watch Thy glistering raiment glow
Whiter than Hermon's whitest snow,
The human lineaments that shine
Irradiant with a light divine:
Till we too change from grace to grace,
Gazing on that transfigured face.

3 Lord, it is good for us to be
Here on the holy mount with Thee;
When darkling in the depths of night,
When dazzled with excess of light,
We bow before the heavenly voice
That bids bewildered souls rejoice,
Though love wax cold, and faith be dim,
"This is My Son; O hear ye Him!"

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: Arthur Penrhyn Stanley

Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, Dean of Westminster, one of the most distinguished English Churchmen of the nineteenth century, was the son of Rev. Edward Stanley, Bishop of Norwich, and was born at Alderly, in Cheshire, December 13, 1815. At the age of fourteen he became a pupil of Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, in whose famous school he displayed a strength of moral character which was a prophecy of the frank and courageous man that was to be. He took well-nigh all the honors at Oxford, where he graduated in 1837. Entering the ministry of the Church of England, he filled successively various positions of honor and responsibility until in 1855 he was appointed Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford. In 1864 he became Dean of Westminster. His… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Lord, it is good for us to be
Author:	Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
Meter:	8.8.8.8 D
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Master, it is good to be. A. P. Stanley. [Transfiguration.] First published in an article by Dean Stanley on the Transfiguration and hymns relating thereto, in Macmillan's Magazine, April, 1870 (vol. xxi. p. 543). It is in 6 stanzas of 8 lines. In a note which accompanies the hymn Dean Stanley says:—

"I have endeavoured (as in a hymn written some years ago on the Ascension) [He is gone—Beyond the skies.] to combine as far as possible, the various thoughts connected with the scene."

It is given in full in the Westminster Abbey Hymn Book, 1883, and other collections, and with the omission of stanza i. as "O Master, it is good to be," in the Hymnary, 1872.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Lord, it is good for us to be. Altered form of Dean Stanley's "Master, it is good to be," p. 718, i.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

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