O Fairest born of Love and Light

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O Fairest born of Love and Light

Author: John Greenleaf Whittier
Tune: HEBRON (Mason)
Published in 17 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Oh, fairest-born of Love and Light!
Yet bending brow and eye severe
On all which pains the holy sight,
Or wounds the pure and perfect ear--

2 Beneath thy broad, impartial eye,
How fade the lines of caste and birth!
How equal in their sufferings lie
The groaning multitudes of earth!

3 Still to a stricken brother true,
Whatever clime hath nourished him;
As stooped to heal the wounded Jew,
The worshiper of Gerizim.

4 In holy words which can not die,
In thoughts which angels learned to know,
Christ gave thy message from on high,
Thy mission to a world of woe.

5 That voice's echo hath not died;
From the blue lake of Galilee,
From Tabor's lonely mountain-side,
It calls a struggling world to thee.

Source: The Voice of Praise: a collection of hymns for the use of the Methodist Church #806

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Author: John Greenleaf Whittier

Whittier, John Greenleaf, the American Quaker poet, was born at Haverhill, Massachusetts, Dec. 17, 1807. He began life as a farm-boy and shoemaker, and subsequently became a successful journalist, editor and poet. In 1828 he became editor of the American Manufacturer (Boston), in 1830 of the New England Review, and an 1836 (on becoming Secretary to the American Anti-Slavery Society) of the Pennsylvania Freeman. He was also for some time, beginning with 1847, the corresponding editor of the National Era. In 1840 he removed to Amesbury, Massachusetts, where most of his later works have been written. At the present time [1890] he lives alternately at Amesbury and Boston. His first poetical piece was printed in the Newburyport Free Press in 182… Go to person page >

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