1 God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine:
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!
2 The tumult and the shouting dies;
The captains and the kings depart;
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart:
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!
3 Far called our navies melt away.
On dune and headland sinks the fire;
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!
4 If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boasting as the Gentiles use
Or lesser breeds without the law:
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!
5 For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard;
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard:
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy mercy on Thy people, Lord!
Source: The A.M.E. Zion Hymnal: official hymnal of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church #69
Born: December 30, 1865, Bombay (now Mumbai), India.
Died: January 18, 1936, London, England.
Buried: Westminster Abbey, London, England.
Kipling, Rudyard, the well-known poet and story-teller, was born at Bombay, India, Dec. 30, 1865, and now (1906) lives at Burwash in Sussex. His noble poem, "The Recessional," was written in 1897 at the time of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, contributed to the Times for July 17, 1897, and first published by the author in his The Five Nations, 1903, p. 214, beginning "God of our fathers, known of old" (National). It has passed into Sursum Corda, Phil., 1898, The English Hymnal, 1906. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)
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