O Strength and Stay, upholding all creation

O Strength and Stay, upholding all creation

Author: St. Ambrose; Translator: John Ellerton
Tune: STRENGTH AND STAY
Published in 50 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 O strength and stay upholding all creation,
who ever dost thyself unmoved abide,
yet day by day the light in due gradation
from hour to hour through all its changes guide;

2 Grant to life's day a calm unclouded ending,
an eve untouched by shadows of decay,
the brightness of a holy death-bed blending
with dawning glories of the eternal day.

3 Hear us, O Father, gracious and forgiving,
through Jesus Christ thy co-eternal Word,
who with the Holy Ghost by all things living
now and to endless ages art adored.

Source: Ancient and Modern: hymns and songs for refreshing worship #21

Author: St. Ambrose

Ambrose (b. Treves, Germany, 340; d. Milan, Italy, 397), one of the great Latin church fathers, is remembered best for his preaching, his struggle against the Arian heresy, and his introduction of metrical and antiphonal singing into the Western church. Ambrose was trained in legal studies and distinguished himself in a civic career, becoming a consul in Northern Italy. When the bishop of Milan, an Arian, died in 374, the people demanded that Ambrose, who was not ordained or even baptized, become the bishop. He was promptly baptized and ordained, and he remained bishop of Milan until his death. Ambrose successfully resisted the Arian heresy and the attempts of the Roman emperors to dominate the church. His most famous convert and disciple w… Go to person page >

Translator: John Ellerton

John Ellerton (b. London, England, 1826; d. Torquay, Devonshire, England, 1893) Educated at King William's College on the Isle of Man and at Trinity College, Cambridge, England, he was ordained in the Church of England in 1851. He served six parishes, spending the longest time in Crewe Green (1860-1872), a church of steelworkers and farmers. Ellerton wrote and translated about eighty hymns, many of which are still sung today. He helped to compile Church Hymns and wrote its handbook, Notes and Illustrations to Church Hymns (1882). Some of his other hymn texts were published in The London Mission Hymn Book (1884). Bert Polman… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: O Strength and Stay, upholding all creation
Latin Title: Rerum Deus tenax vigor
Author: St. Ambrose
Translator: John Ellerton
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Timeline

Media

The Cyber Hymnal #5342
  • Adobe Acrobat image (PDF)
  • Noteworthy Composer score (NWC)
  • XML score (XML)

Instances

Instances (1 - 11 of 11)

Anglican Hymns Old and New (Rev. and Enl.) #577

Church Hymnal, Fifth Edition #70

TextPage Scan

CPWI Hymnal #19

Hymns Ancient and Modern, New Standard Edition #7

Hymns Old and New #390

TextScoreAudio

The Cyber Hymnal #5342

TextPage Scan

The New English Hymnal #248a

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The New English Hymnal #248b

Text

Ancient and Modern #21

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Common Praise #18

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Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New #537

Include 39 pre-1979 instances
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