Light Of The World We Hail Thee

Light of the world, we hail Thee, flushing the eastern skies;
Never shall darkness veil Thee again from human eyes;
Too long, alas, withholden, now spread from shore to shore;
Thy light, so glad and golden, shall set on earth no more.

Light of the world, thy beauty steals into every heart,
And glorifies with duty life’s poorest, humblest, part;
Thou robest in thy splendor the simple ways of men,
And helpest them to render light back to Thee again.

Light of the world, before Thee our spirits prostrate fall;
We worship, we adore Thee, Thou light, the life of all;
With Thee is no forgetting of all Thine hand hath made;
Thy rising hath no setting, thy sunshine hath no shade.

Light of the world, illumine this darkened earth of Thine,
Till everything that’s human be filled with what’s divine;
Till every tongue and nation, from sin’s dominion free,
Rise in the new creation which springs from love and Thee.