We Have Not Known Thee As We Ought

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We have not known Thee as we ought

Author: Thomas Benson Pollock (1889)
Tune: ST. CHRYSOSTOM (Barnby)
Published in 49 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Piano/Organ
	If You But Trust in God to Guide You

Choral
	God of the Ages

Instrumental
	If Thou But Trust In God to Guide Thee (…

Representative Text

1 We have not known thee as we ought,
nor learned thy wisdom, grace and pow'r;
the things of earth have filled our thought,
and trifles of the passing hour.
Lord, give us light thy truth to see,
and make us wise in knowing thee.

2 We have not feared thee as we ought,
nor bowed beneath thine awesome eye,
nor guarded deed and word and thought,
remembering that God was nigh.
Lord, give us faith to know thee near,
and grant the grace of holy fear.

3 We have not loved thee as we ought,
nor cared that we are loved by thee;
thy presence we have coldly sought,
and feebly longed thy face to see.
Lord, give a pure and loving heart
to feel and own the love thou art.

4 We have not served thee as we ought;
alas! the duties left undone,
the work with little fervor wrought,
the battles lost or scarcely won!
Lord, give the zeal and give the might,
for thee to toil, for thee to fight.

5 When shall we know thee as we ought,
and fear and love and serve aright!
When shall we, out of trial brought,
be perfect in the land of light!
Lord, may we day by day prepare
to see thy face and serve thee there.

Source: Trinity Psalter Hymnal #178

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Author: Thomas Benson Pollock

Pollock, Thomas Benson, M.A., was born in 1836, and graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, B.A. 1859, M.A. 1863, where he also gained the Vice-Chancellor's Prize for English Verse in 1855. Taking Holy Orders in 1861, he was Curate of St. Luke's, Leek, Staffordshire; St. Thomas's, Stamford Hill, London; and St. Alban's, Birmingham. Mr. Pollock is a most successful writer of metrical Litanies. His Metrical Litanies for Special Services and General Use, Mowbray, Oxford, 1870, and other compositions of the same kind contributed subsequently to various collections, have greatly enriched modern hymnbooks. To the 1889 Supplemental Hymns to Hymns Ancient & Modern, Mr. Pollock contributed two hymns, “We are soldiers of Christ, Who is mighty to save… Go to person page >

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First Line:	We have not known Thee as we ought
Title:	We Have Not Known Thee As We Ought
Author:	Thomas Benson Pollock (1889)
Meter:	8.8.8.8.8.8
Language:	English
Notes:	Spanish translation: See "Nos hace falta el saber" by Wayne Andersen
Copyright:	Public Domain