Lord of Life, Prophetic Spirit

Lord of Life

pro­phet­ic Spir­it

In sweet mea­sure ev­er­more

To the ho­ly child­ren deal­ing

Each his gift from Thy rich store;

Bless Thy fa­mi­ly

ad­or­ing

As in Is­ra­el’s schools of yore.

Holy Je­sus

Eye most lov­ing

On each young dis­ci­ple bent;

Voice that

seem­ing earth­ly

sum­moned

Samuel to the aw­ful tent;

Hand that cast Eli­jah’s man­tle;

Thine be all Thy grace hath lent.

As to Thine own se­ven­ty scho­lars

Thou of old Thine arm didst reach

Under Thy ma­jes­tic sha­dow

Guiding them to do and teach

Till their hour of so­lemn unc­tion;

So be with us all and each.

God and Fa­ther of all spir­its

Whose dread call young Jo­shua knew

Forty days in dark­ness wait­ing

With Thy serv­ant good and true

Thence to wage Thy war des­cend­ing

Own us

Lord

Thy cham­pi­ons

too.

One Thy light

the tem­ple fill­ing

Holy

ho­ly

ho­ly Three;

Meanest men and bright­est an­gels

Wait alike the word from Thee;

Highest mus­ings

low­li­est wor­ship

Must their pre­pa­ra­tion be.

Now Thou speak­est: hear we trem­bling—

From the glo­ry comes a voice.

Who ac­cepts th’Al­migh­ty’s mis­sion?

Who will make Christ’s work his choice?

Who for Us pro­claim to sin­ners

Turn

be­lieve

en­dure

re­joice?

Here are we

Re­deem­er

send us!

But be­cause Thy work is fire

And our lips

un­clean and earth­ly

Breathe no breath of high de­sire;

Send Thy ser­aph from the al­tar

Veiled

but in his bright at­tire.

Cause him

Lord

to fly full swift­ly

With the mys­tic coal in hand

Sin con­sum­ing

soul trans­form­ing

(Faith and love will un­der­stand);

Touch our lips

Thou aw­ful Mer­cy

With Thine own keen heal­ing brand.

Thou didst come that fire to kin­dle;

Fain would we Thy torch­es prove

Far and wide Thy bea­cons light­ing

With th’un­dy­ing spark of love:

Only feed our flame

we pray Thee

With Thy breath­ings from ab­ove.

Now to God

the soul’s cre­at­or

To His Word and wis­dom sure

To His all en­light­en­ing Spir­it

Patron of the frail and poor

Three in One

be praise and glo­ry

Here and while the heav’ns en­dure.