Not always on the mount may we

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Not always on the mount may we

Author: Frederick Lucian Hosmer
Published in 37 hymnals

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Representative Text

1 Not always on the mount may we
Rapt in the heavenly vision be;
The shores of thought and feeling know
The Spirit’s tidal ebb and flow.

2 'Lord, it is good abiding here,'
We cry, the heavenly presence near;
The vision vanishes, our eyes
Are lifted into vacant skies.

3 Yet hath one such exalted hour
Upon the soul redeeming power,
And its strength through after days
We travel our appointed ways;

4 Till all the lowly vale grows bright,
Transfigured in remembered light,
And in untiring souls we bear
The freshness of the upper air.

5 The mount for vision: but below
The paths of daily duty go,
And nobler life therein shall own
The pattern on the mountain shown.

Source: Service Book and Hymnal of the Lutheran Church in America #535a

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Author: Frederick Lucian Hosmer

Hosmer, Frederick Lucian, B.A., was born at Framingham, Mass., in 1840, and educated at Harvard, where he graduated B.A. in 1869. Entering the Unitarian Ministry in 1872 he has held charges in Quincy, Ill., 1872-77; Cleveland, Ohio, 1878-92; St. Louis, 1894-99; and since 1899, at Berkeley, Cal. His Way of Life, 1877, was a compilation of Prayers and Responsive Services for Sunday Schools. Of Unity Hymns and Carols, 1880, he was joint editor with W. C. Gannett and J. V. Blake. His hymns were published jointly by him and W. C. Gannett (q.v.), as The Thought of God in Hymns and Poems (Boston: Little, Brown & Co.), 1st Series, 1885; 2nd Series, 1894. Of his 56 hymns in this work the following have come into common use, for the most part during… Go to person page >

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