A wondrous star our pioneer

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A wondrous star our pioneer

Author: John Weiss
Tune: DEDHAM
Published in 5 hymnals

Representative Text

A wondrous star our pioneer,
We left the mystic land
Where heaven-nurtured childhood slept,
Where yet old visions stand.

O God! the land of dreams we left,
Repose we left for aye,
And followed meekly to the place
Where our Redeemer lay.

That humble manger we have found;
The world his cradle is;
His life is hidden far below
Its sins and miseries.

The world throws wide its brazen gates;
With Thee we enter in;
O, grant us, in our humble sphere,
To free that world from sin.

We have one mind in Christ our Lord
To stand and point above;
To hurl rebuke at social wrong;
But all, O God, in love.

The star is resting in the sky;
To worship Christ we came;
The moments haste; O, touch our tongues
With Thy celestial flame!

The truest worship is a life;
All dreaming we resign;
We lay our offerings at thy feet,—
Our lives, O Christ, are thine!

Source: A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion (15th ed.) #424

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Author: John Weiss

Weiss, Rev. John. (Boston, Massachusetts, June 28, 1828 [sic]--March 9, 1879, Boston). He graduated from Harvard College in 1837, and from the Harvard Divinity School in 1843. He was ordained minister of the First Church, (Unitarian), Watertown, Mass., in 1843; was minister of the First Church, New Bedford, Mass., 1847-1858; and served the church at Watertown again 1862-1869. He was a leader in the anti-slavery movement and a prolific author of books and essays. For Visitation Day at the Divinity School, 1843, he wrote a hymn beginning "A wondrous star our pioneer," which was included in the Book of Hymns, 1846, compiled by S. Longfellow and S. Johnson, and in their later book, Hymns of the Spirit, 1864. The Book of Hymns also included in a… Go to person page >

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