Scripture Verse

Thou hast kept the good wine until now. John 2:10

Introduction

Words: John H. An­ke­tell, Gos­pel and Epis­tle Hymns for the Chris­tian Year (New York: Church Re­cord Com­pa­ny, 1889), num­ber 11.

Music: St. Ed­ith Jus­tin H. Knecht, 1799, & Ed­ward Hus­band, 1871 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

portrait
Justin H. Knecht (1752–1817)

Lyrics

O Christ, Thy con­stant bless­ing
Shall hal­low all our days;
Through Thee true joy pos­sess­ing,
We sing our hymns of praise;
Come, light and glo­ry shed­ding,
And change by pow­er div­ine
The wa­ter of earth’s wed­ding
To Hea­ven’s eter­nal wine.

Thou dost not grudge brief plea­sure
To crea­tures of the dust,
If well we guard the trea­sure
Committed to our trust;
If with Thy mo­de­ra­tion
We use the gifts of earth,
As heirs of Thy sal­va­tion
And sons of hea­ven­ly birth.

When clouds of dark­ness ga­ther,
And earth­ly joys are dumb,
We look to Thee, O Fa­ther;
Thine hour is not yet come!
Oh, haste Thy blest ap­pear­ing,
Epiphany di­vine!
Our hearts for ev­er cheer­ing
With pure, ce­les­tial wine!