ruler of all nature,
O thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish,
Thee will I honor,
thou, my soul's glory, joy, and crown.
2 Fair are the meadows,
fairer still the woodlands,
robed in the blooming garb of spring:
Jesus is fairer,
Jesus is purer
who makes the woeful heart to sing.
3 Fair is the sunshine,
fairer still the moonlight,
and all the twinkling starry host:
Jesus shines brighter,
Jesus shines purer
than all the angels heaven can boast.
4 Beautiful Savior!
Lord of all the nations!
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor,
praise, adoration,
now and forevermore be thine.
United Methodist Hymnal, 1989 (taken from hymnary.org)
When I was in first grade, we lived in Columbia, MO while my dad was finishing up his doctoral work. We went to a large Methodist church, well it was large by 1960s standards anyway! (As an aside, the pastor there later went on to become a bishop.) One of the highlights for me was that I was able to sing in the primary youth choir, made up of first, second, and third graders. This was one of the songs that we would sing and it became one of my favorite hymns. I've also heard it called Beautiful Savior instead of Fairest Lord Jesus, like the first line of the fourth stanza.
No comments:
Post a Comment