LIGHT OF THE WORLD, WE HAIL THEE
"I am the light of the world." John 8:12
Words: John Samuel Bewley Monsell, Hymns of Love and Praise, 1863.
Music: "Salve Domine," Lawrence W. Watson.
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, 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.