Thy Hand, O God, Has Guided

Thy hand

O God

has guid­ed

Thy flock from age to age;

The won­drous tale is writ­ten

Full clear

on ev­ery page;

Our fa­thers owned Thy good­ness

And we their deeds re­cord;

And both of this bear wit­ness

One church

one faith

one Lord.

Thy her­alds brought glad tid­ings

To great­est

as to least;

They bade men rise

and hast­en

To share the great King’s feast;

And this was all their teach­ing

In ev­ery deed and word

To all alike pro­claim­ing

One church

one faith

one Lord.

When sha­dows thick were fall­ing

And all seemed sunk in night

Thou

Lord

didst send Thy serv­ants

Thy chos­en sons of light.

On them and on Thy peo­ple

Thy plen­te­ous grace was poured

And this was still their mes­sage:

One church

one faith

one Lord.

Through ma­ny a day of dark­ness

Through ma­ny a scene of strife

The faith­ful few fought brave­ly

To guard the na­tion’s life

Their Gos­pel of re­demp­tion

Sin par­doned

man re­stored

Was all in this en­fold­ed

One church

one faith

one Lord.

And we

shall we be faith­less?

Shall hearts fail

hands hang down?

Shall we evade the con­flict

And cast away our crown?

Not so: in God’s deep coun­sels

Some bet­ter thing is stored:

We will main­tain

un­flinch­ing

One church

one faith

one Lord.

Thy mer­cy will not fail us

Nor leave Thy work un­done;

With Thy right hand to help us

The vic­to­ry shall be won;

And then

by men and an­gels

Thy name shall be adored

And this shall be their an­them

One church

one faith

one Lord.