Scripture Verse

Let there be light. Genesis 1:3

Introduction

Words: Will­iam M. Vo­ries, 1908.

Music: Pen­te­cost (Boyd) Will­iam Boyd, 1864 (🔊 pdf nwc). First pub­lished in Thir­ty-Two Hymn Tunes Com­posed by Mem­bers of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ox­ford, 1868.

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

portrait
William M. Vories (1880–1964)

I wrote [this hymn] in 1908, to­ge­ther with some vers­es about War. These I did in an iro­nic­al vein, and the hymn came as a re­act­ion of re­lief.

I have al­ways been in­ter­est­ed in hym­no­lo­gy, and am a strong be­liever in the pow­er of hymns to af­fect the lives of peo­ple. I be­gan a col­lect­ion of hym­nals when a high-school boy.

William Vor­ies

Lyrics

Let there be light, Lord God of hosts,
Let there be wis­dom on the earth;
Let broad hu­ma­ni­ty have birth,
Let there be deeds, in­stead of boasts.

Within our pass­ioned hearts in­still
The calm that end­eth strain and strife;
Make us thy min­is­ters of life;
Purge us from lusts that curse and kill.

Give us the peace of vi­sion clear
To see our bro­thers’ good our own,
To joy and suf­fer not alone,
The love that cast­eth out all fear.

Let woe and waste of war­fare cease,
That use­ful la­bor yet may build
Its homes with love and laugh­ter filled;
God give thy way­ward child­ren peace.