Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
Matthew 24:35
Words: Robert Grant (1770–1838).
Music: Alstone Christopher E. Willing, in the Appendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1868 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good photo of Willing (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
The starry firmament on high,
And all the glories of the sky,
Yet shine not to Thy praise, O Lord,
So brightly as Thy written Word.
The hopes that holy Word supplies,
Its truths divine and precepts wise,
In each a heavenly beam I see,
And every beam conducts to Thee.
Almighty Lord, the sun shall fail,
The moon forget her nightly tale,
And deepest silence hush on high,
The radiant chorus of the sky.
But, fixed, for everlasting years,
Unmoved amid the wreck of spheres,
Thy Word shall shine in cloudless day,
When Heaven and earth have passed away.