Most High! Most exalted! Omnipotent Father!
To Thee with great gladness our anthems we raise.
Tho’ feeble and failing before Thee we gather,
Made bold by Thy blessing,
Thy Spirit possessing,
We join in confessing
Christ’s name to thy praise.
Ere ages of time Thou didst find Thy good pleasure
In Him whose whole happiness centred in Thee:
No creature in earth or in heaven could measure
The bliss of that dwelling,
All concept excelling,
Surpassing all telling,
All mortal can see.
There, infinite Father, Thy counsels eternal
Were centred in Him whom as Son we confess,
And who in compassion from regions supernal
Our ruined race nearing
Spoke words in our hearing
Life-giving and cheering
Dispelling distress.
And by His blood-shedding made perfect lavation
For all who in grief and in guiltiness groan.
Thrice worthy is He of our heart’s adoration
Who bruised was to bless us,
Who died to possess us
And lives to confess us
Now bone of His bone.
As Blest and the Blessing we joyfully hail Him,
And give Him the glory, the honour and might,
While waiting the hour when the heavens that veil Him
Shall rent be asunder,
And all the world under
Shall see Him, and wonder
And wail at the sight.
Then we who have known Him shall meet Him rejoicing
And earth with high heaven His praises shall blend,
And everything breathing His fame shall be voicing
For sin and its sorrows,
Its death and its horrors,
Its hopeless tomorrows,
For ever shall end.