O very God of very God

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O very God of very God

Author: J. M. Neale (1848)
Published in 48 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Piano/Organ
	Wondrous Love: Five Hymn Settings for Or…

Choral
	To You My Eyes Are Turned

Handbells
	Alleluia, What Wondrous Love! (Eight Rep…

Representative Text

1 O very God of very God,
and very Light of Light,
whose feet this earth's dark valley trod
that so it might be bright:

2 Our hopes are weak, our fears are strong,
thick darkness blinds our eyes;
cold is the night; thy people long
that thou, their Sun, wouldst rise.

3 And even now, though dull and gray,
the east is brightening fast,
and kindling to the perfect day
that never shall be past.

4 O guide us till our path is done,
and we have reached the shore
where thou, our everlasting Sun,
art shining evermore!

5 We wait in faith, and turn our face
to where the daylight springs,
till thou shalt come our gloom to chase,
with healing in thy wings.

Source: The Hymnal 1982: according to the use of the Episcopal Church #672

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Author: J. M. Neale

John M. Neale's life is a study in contrasts: born into an evangelical home, he had sympathies toward Rome; in perpetual ill health, he was incredibly productive; of scholarly temperament, he devoted much time to improving social conditions in his area; often ignored or despised by his contemporaries, he is lauded today for his contributions to the church and hymnody. Neale's gifts came to expression early–he won the Seatonian prize for religious poetry eleven times while a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, England. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1842, but ill health and his strong support of the Oxford Movement kept him from ordinary parish ministry. So Neale spent the years between 1846 and 1866 as a warden of Sackvi… Go to person page >

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First Line:	O very God of very God
Author:	J. M. Neale (1848)
Meter:	8.6.8.6
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Tune

BANGOR (Tansur)

Traditionally used for Montgomery's text and for Peter Abelard's "Alone Thou Goest Forth, O Lord," BANGOR comes from William Tans'ur's A Compleat Melody: or the Harmony of Syon (the preface of which is dated 1734). In that collection the tune was a three-part setting for Psalm 12 (and for Psalm 11 i…

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ST. MAGNUS (Clarke)

ST. MAGNUS first appeared in Henry Playford's Divine Companion (1707 ed.) as an anonymous tune with soprano and bass parts. The tune was later credited to Jeremiah Clark (b. London, England, c. 1670; d. London, 1707), who was a chorister in the Chapel Royal and sang at the coronation of James II in…

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MOUNT CALVARY (Stewart)

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