Light of the World, We Hail Thee

Blest Light of the world, we hail Thee,

Now flushing the eastern skies;

Nor ever shall darkness vail Thee

Again from our mortal eyes.

Alas! far too long withholden,

Now spread from shore to shore;

Thy radiance, so glad, so golden,

Shall set on the earth no more.

Fair Light of the world, Thy beauty

Shall steal into every heart;

It sweetly adorns with duty

Life’s poorest and lowliest part;

Thou robest in matchless splendor

The simple ways of men,

And helpest them all to render

That light back to Thee again.

Mild Light of the world, before Thee

In homage we humbly fall;

We worship, we magnify Thee,

Lord Jesus, the life of all,

With whom there is no forgetting

Of all Thine hand hath made;

Whose rising shall have no setting,

Whose sunshine shall have no shade.

Clear Light of the world, illumine

Thine sin-darkened world of Thine

Until everything that’s human

Is filled with a light divine,

Until every tongue and nation

From sin’s dominion free,

Arise in the new creation

That springeth from love and Thee.