Any of you who knows me, knows how I enjoy my old hymnals. This afternoon I was asked by my lovely wife, Laura, about finding a hymn text to include in her mother's birthday card.
Oddly enough, the very first hymn I turned to in my 1890 Reformed Church Hymnal was wonderfully inspirational and very fitting for what my wife was looking for. However, because it was a bit long, too long to easily write out, I told her we should be able to find it at one of my favorite hymn sites on the web - www.cyberhymnal.org.
So, I jumped on the site and quickly found the first line of the text as in my hymnal only to find that the only thing in common between my hymnal hymn and the online hymn was the first line - everything else was different.
So, I thought, well, I will look for the text on the web at large. So I typed in the first line and exactly what I found at cyberhymnal was what came up in the search. I then started to type in various lines of my hymnal text only to find that there is not a trace of this text to be found. Very, very interesting.
So, (this is the third paragraph that begins with so) - I am going to make this a challenge. I know that I have very little following so it may not yield much by way of results, but I am going to post this hymn here and if anyone can find any information about it, it would be appreciated. I will say that my hymnal does state who wrote it, but even as I looked at a few lists of this person's hymn works, this hymn did not show up apart from the first line. Anyone who does look this hymn up by first line will quickly know who it is attributed to. But what I am looking for is the full text as noted below. The date of the variant (online) text is 1894, but my hymnal was published in 1890, which means my text is older. Let me know if you find anything. In the meantime, be blessed by the text:
Keep Thou my way, O Lord;
Myself I cannot guide;
Nor dare I trust my erring steps
One moment from Thy side:
I cannot think aright,
Unless imprisoned by Thee;
My heart would fail without Thy aid;
Choose Thou my thoughts for me.
For every act of faith,
And every pure design,
For all of good my soul can know,
The glory, Lord, be Thine;
Free grace my pardon seals,
Through Thy atoning blood;
Free grace the full assurance brings,
Of peace with Thee, my God.
Oh, speak and I will hear;
Command, and I obey;
My willing feet with joy shall haste
To run the heavenly way;
Keep Thou my wandering heart,
And bid it cease to roam;
Oh, bear me safe o'er death's cold wave
To heaven my blissful home.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Ed
Oddly enough, the very first hymn I turned to in my 1890 Reformed Church Hymnal was wonderfully inspirational and very fitting for what my wife was looking for. However, because it was a bit long, too long to easily write out, I told her we should be able to find it at one of my favorite hymn sites on the web - www.cyberhymnal.org.
So, I jumped on the site and quickly found the first line of the text as in my hymnal only to find that the only thing in common between my hymnal hymn and the online hymn was the first line - everything else was different.
So, I thought, well, I will look for the text on the web at large. So I typed in the first line and exactly what I found at cyberhymnal was what came up in the search. I then started to type in various lines of my hymnal text only to find that there is not a trace of this text to be found. Very, very interesting.
So, (this is the third paragraph that begins with so) - I am going to make this a challenge. I know that I have very little following so it may not yield much by way of results, but I am going to post this hymn here and if anyone can find any information about it, it would be appreciated. I will say that my hymnal does state who wrote it, but even as I looked at a few lists of this person's hymn works, this hymn did not show up apart from the first line. Anyone who does look this hymn up by first line will quickly know who it is attributed to. But what I am looking for is the full text as noted below. The date of the variant (online) text is 1894, but my hymnal was published in 1890, which means my text is older. Let me know if you find anything. In the meantime, be blessed by the text:
Keep Thou my way, O Lord;
Myself I cannot guide;
Nor dare I trust my erring steps
One moment from Thy side:
I cannot think aright,
Unless imprisoned by Thee;
My heart would fail without Thy aid;
Choose Thou my thoughts for me.
For every act of faith,
And every pure design,
For all of good my soul can know,
The glory, Lord, be Thine;
Free grace my pardon seals,
Through Thy atoning blood;
Free grace the full assurance brings,
Of peace with Thee, my God.
Oh, speak and I will hear;
Command, and I obey;
My willing feet with joy shall haste
To run the heavenly way;
Keep Thou my wandering heart,
And bid it cease to roam;
Oh, bear me safe o'er death's cold wave
To heaven my blissful home.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Ed
