Let There Be Light

Representative Text

1 God, your almighty word
Chaos and darkness heard,
And took their flight:
Hear us, we humbly pray,
And where the gospel-day
Sheds not its glorious ray,
Let there be light!

2 Savior, you came to give
Those who in darkness live
Healing and sight,
Health to the troubled mind,
Sight to the inward blind:
Now to all humankind
Let there be light!

3 Spirit of truth and love,
Life giving, holy dove,
Speed on your flight!
Move on the water's face
Bearing the lamp of grace
And, in earth's darkest place,
Let there be light!

4 Holy and blessed Three,
Glorious Trinity,
Wisdom, Love, Might!
Boundless as ocean's tide,
Rolling in fullest pride,
Through the world, far and wide,
Let there be light!

Source: RitualSong (2nd ed.) #661

Author: John Marriott

Marriott, John, M.A, son of E. Marriott, D.D., Rector of Cottesbach, near Lutterworth, was born at Cottesbach, in 1780, and educated at Rugby, and Christ Church, Oxford. He was the second of two who obtained honours in the schools in 1802, the first year in which there was a public examination for honours at Oxford. He was also Student of Christ Church, and for about two years a private tutor in the family of the Duke of Buccleuch. The Duke presented him to the Rectory of Church Lawford, Warwickshire. This he retained to his death, although his wife's health compelled him to reside in Devonshire, where he was successively curate of St. Lawrence and other parishes in Exeter, and of Broadclyst, near Exeter, where he died March 31, 1825. His p… Go to person page >

Notes

Thou Whose almighty word, p. 715, i. 2, This hymn, beginning "Thou Whose eternal word," was quoted by the Rev. Thomas Mortimer, M.A., Lecturer of St. Olave's, Southwark, and afternoon Lecturer at St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, at the meeting of the London Missionary Society in Great Queen Street Chapel, London, on Thur., May 12, 1825, and was printed with a digest of the speech in the Evangelical Magazine, June 1825, p. 262. It was probably copied from the Magazine into the Friendly Visitor of July , 1825.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Tune

ITALIAN HYMN

Felice de Giardini (b. Turin, Italy, 1716; d. Moscow, Russia, 1796) composed ITALIAN HYMN in three parts for this text at the request of Selina Shirley, the famous evangelically minded Countess of Huntingdon. Giardini was living in London at the time and contributed this tune and three others to Mar…

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Timeline

Media

The Cyber Hymnal #6700
  • Adobe Acrobat image (PDF)
  • Noteworthy Composer score (NWC)
  • XML score (XML)

Instances

Instances (1 - 46 of 46)

Ambassador Hymnal #316

Text

Ancient and Modern #810

Anglican Hymns Old and New (Rev. and Enl.) #767

TextPage Scan

Catholic Book of Worship III #513

Church Family Worship #416

Church Hymnal, Fifth Edition #324

Church Hymnal, Mennonite #514

Text

Church Hymnary (4th ed.) #112

Common Praise (1998) #560

TextPage Scan

Common Praise #267

TextPage Scan

Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New #684

Page Scan

Complete Mission Praise #699

TextPage Scan

CPWI Hymnal #241

TextPage Scan

Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #202

Audio

Evangelical Lutheran Worship #673

Gather (3rd ed.) #561

Great Songs of the Church (Revised) #101

Hymns Ancient and Modern, New Standard Edition #180

Hymns and Psalms #29

Text

Hymns for Today's Church (2nd ed.) #506

Text

Hymns of Glory, Songs of Praise #112

Hymns of the Christian Life #441

Hymns Old and New #514

Text

Lutheran Worship #317

TextPage Scan

Moravian Book of Worship #380

TextPage Scan

One in Faith #820

Page Scan

Praise for the Lord (Expanded Edition) #703

Praise! psalms hymns and songs for Christian worship #158

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs #9

TextPage Scan

RitualSong (2nd ed.) #661

RitualSong (2nd ed.) #662

TextPage Scan

RitualSong #619

Sing Glory #597

Singing the Faith #106

The Baptist Hymnal #207

The Book of Hymns (A fresh anthology of favourite hymns) #25

Text

The Book of Praise #291

TextPage Scan

The Christian Life Hymnal #5

TextScoreAudio

The Cyber Hymnal #6700

TextPage Scan

The Hymnal 1982 #371

Text

The Irish Presbyterian Hymnbook #636

TextPage Scan

The New English Hymnal #466

Text

The Song Book of the Salvation Army #224

Text

Together in Song #447

TextPage Scan

Voices United #313

Text

Worship (3rd ed.) #486

Include 397 pre-1979 instances
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