O God Creator, in whose hand
The rolling planets lie,
Give skill to those who now command
The ships that brave the sky.
Strong Spirit, burning with mankind
On mission high to dare
Safe pilot all who seek to find
Their haven through the air.
Enfolding Life, bear on Thy wing
Through storm, and dark, and sun,
The men in air who closer bring
The nations into one.
Harry Webb Farrington
The Methodist Hymnal 1939 edition
<idle musing>
This hymn was written in 1928, when flying was still a dangerous and novel thing. The author lived in Dayton, OH, which was right in the center of most of the excitement over aviation. It only occurs in seven hymnals.
You can sense the same kind of excitement and optimism that some of us felt at the beginning of the microcomputer age, or the rise of the internet, or the hope that maybe blogging or social media might actually improve social interaction. All that seems naive in retrospect. The same for author of this hymn, who thought that aviation would "closer bring the nations into one." The massive destruction of firebombing in WWII laid that notion to rest...
</idle musing>
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