Heavenly Shepherd, Thee we pray

Representative Text

1 Heavenly Shepherd, Thee we pray,
For Thy servant here to-day:
By the cross upon his brow,
By his ordination vow,
By the prayers which we have prayed
For the Holy Spirit's aid,
By the deep and fervent love
Owing to his Lord above,
Heavenly Shepherd, Thee we pray,
For Thy servant here to-day:
Grant him faithful watch to keep,
Tend Thy lambs, and feed Thy sheep.

2 From the silent power of sin
Lurking secretly within,
May the grace that flows from Thee,
Heavenly Shepherd, set him free;
By the blessing on him breathed,
By the charge on him bequeathed,
Thou the Way, the Truth, the Life,
Gird him for the sacred strife,
Aye his faithful watch to keep,
Tend Thy lambs, and feed Thy sheep.

3 Speed him on his life-long way,
Speed him whom we speed to-day;
Thou, the gracious, loving Lord,
Give him souls for his reward:
Till he win the promised crown,
When he lays his burden down
Humbly at his Saviour's feet,
Low before the mercy-seat:
Give him, Lord, Thy grace to keep,
Tend Thy lambs, and feed Thy sheep.

4 To the blessèd Trinity
Now let praise and glory be,
In Whose Name we meet to-day
For our guidance, as we pray
That we may, in all we do,
Pastor, and his flock, be true;
True to man in heavenly love,
True to Thee, our God, above,
Till we, sheep and shepherd, meet,
Ransomed at Thy judgment seat.

Amen.

The Hymnal: revised and enlarged as adopted by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord 1892

Author: C. G. Woodhouse

Woodhouse, Charles Goddard, B.A., son of George Windus Woodhouse, born Aug. 16, 1835, and educated at Albrighton and Christ Church, Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1860. He was for some time Vicar of Minsterley, Diocese of Hereford. He died Aug. 20th, 1876. He was the author of a very tender hymn for "Institution to a Parish," beginning "By the Cross upon thy brow," and consisting of 3 stanzas of 8 lines. It was printed on a fly-leaf. In 1881, Prebendary G. Thring recast the hymn, added a doxology, and gave it as “Heavenly Shepherd, Thee we pray," in his Church of England Hymn Book, 1882. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)  Go to person page >

Author: Godfrey Thring

Godfrey Thring (b. Alford, Somersetshire, England, 1823; d. Shamley Green, Guilford, Surrey, England, 1903) was born in the parsonage of Alford, where his father was rector. Educated at Balliol College, Oxford, England, he was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1847. After serving in several other parishes, Thring re­turned to Alford and Hornblotten in 1858 to succeed his father as rector, a position he retained until his own retirement in 1893. He was also associated with Wells Cathedral (1867-1893). After 1861 Thring wrote many hymns and published several hymnals, including Hymns Congregational (1866), Hymns and Sacred Lyrics (1874), and the respect­ed A Church of England Hymn Book Adapted to the Daily Services of the Church… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Heavenly Shepherd, Thee we pray
Author: C. G. Woodhouse (1881)
Author: Godfrey Thring (1881)
Meter: 7.7.7.7.7 D
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Tune

PASTOR (Wood)


WELLINGTON (Wellington)


MENDELSSOHN (51171)

The tune is from the second chorus of Felix Mendelssohn's (PHH 279) Festgesang (Op. 68) for male voices and brass; it was first performed in 1840 at the Gutenberg Festival in Leipzig, a festival celebrating the anniversary of Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. Mendelssohn's tune is similar…

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Timeline

Instances

Instances (1 - 14 of 14)

Book of Common Praise #d195

Gloria in Excelsis #d247

Gloria in Excelsis #d151

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Hymnal Companion to the Prayer Book with Accompanying Tunes (Second Edition) #267

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Hymnal Companion to the Prayer Book #267

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Hymni Ecclesiae #250

The Book of Common Praise #d202

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The Church Hymnal #290

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The Church Hymnal #290

TextPage Scan

The Hymnal and Order of Service #287

Text

The Hymnal and Order of Service #287

The Hymnal of the Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod. Text ed. #d182

TextPage Scan

The Hymnal, Revised and Enlarged, as adopted by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord 1892 #290

Page Scan

The Hymnal #290

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