Scripture Verse

Your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence. Isaiah 1:7

Introduction

Words: Re­gi­nald He­ber (1783–1826). Pub­lished post­hu­mous­ly in Hymns Writ­ten and Adapt­ed to the Week­ly Church Ser­vice of the Year (Lon­don: J. Mur­ray, 1827), page 111.

Music: Isle­worth Sam­uel How­ard, 1765 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

  • Fitzwilliam tra­di­tion­al Eng­lish me­lo­dy, in The Eng­lish Hym­nal (Lon­don: Ox­ford Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 1906), num­ber 448 (🔊 pdf nwc)

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of How­ard (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Reginald Heber (1783–1826)

Lyrics

From foes that would the land de­vour,
From guil­ty pride and lust of pow­er;
From wild se­di­tion’s law­less hour;
From yoke of sla­ve­ry.

From blind­ed zeal by fac­tion led;
From gid­dy change by fan­cy bred;
From poi­son­ous er­ror’s ser­pent head
Good Lord, pre­serve us free!

Defend, O God! with guard­ian hand,
The laws and rul­er of our land,
And grant our Church Thy grace to stand
In faith and uni­ty!

The Spir­it’s help of Thee we crave,
That Thou, whose blood was shed to save,
May’st at Thy se­cond com­ing, have
A flock to wel­come Thee!