O Word of God in-car-nate,
O wis-dom from on high,
O Truth un-changed, un-chang-ing,
O Light of our dark sky;
We praise Thee for the ra-diance
That from the hal-lowed page,
A lan-tern to our foot-steps,
Shines on from age to age.
The church from her dear Mas-ter
Re-ceived the gift di-vine,
And still that light she lift-eth
O'er all the earth to shine,
It is the gol-den cas-ket,
Where gems of truth are stored;
It is the heaven-drawn pic-ture
Of Christ, the liv-ing Word.
It float-eth like a ban-ner
Be-fore God's host un-furled;
It shin-eth like a bea-con
A-bove the dark-ling world.
It is the chart and com-pass
That o'er life's surg-ing sea,
'Mid mists and rocks and quick-sands,
Still guides, O Christ, to Thee.
O make Thy church, dear Sav-ior,
A lamp of pur-est gold,
To bear be-fore the na-tions
Thy true light, as of old.
O teach Thy wan-d'ring pil-grims
By this their path to trace,
Till, clouds and dark-ness end-ed,
They see Thee face to face.