As various as the moon

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As various as the moon

Author: Thomas Scott
Published in 19 hymnals

Representative Text

1 As various as the moon
Is man's estate below:
To his bright day of gladness soon
Succeeds a night go woe.

2 The night of woe resigns
Its darkness and its grief;
Again the morn of comfort shines,
And brings our souls relief.

3 Yet not from fickle chance
These varying scenes arise:
Our dark and brighter hours advance,
By laws supremely wise.

4 God measures out to all
Their lot of good and ill;
Nor this too great, nor that too small,
Ordain'd by heav'n's high will.

5 Hopeful and humble bear
Thy evil and thy good;
Nor by presumption, nor despair,
Weak mortal be subdu'd.

Source: A Collection of Hymns and A Liturgy: for the use of Evangelical Lutheran Churches; to which are added prayers for families and individuals #457

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Author: Thomas Scott

Thomas Scott was born at Norwich, and was the son of a Dissenting minister. After his education he began his ministerial life at Wartmell, in Norfolk, adding also the labours of school-teaching. Subsequently he changed his pastoral relations several times, spending the last years of his life at Hupton, in Norfolk, where he died in 1776. He was the author of some prose works, several poems, and a few hymns. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A., 1872… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	As various as the moon
Author:	Thomas Scott
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

As various as the moon. T. Scott. [Changes in Life.] Contributed to Dr. Enfield's Hymns for Public Worship, Warrington, 1772, No. 130, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed, "The changes of human life appointed by God." In common with all the hymns in that collection it was unsigned. In 1795 it reappeared in the Unitarian hymn-book known as " Kippis's Collection 1795," No. 379, with the signature "Scott." From the foregoing collections it has passed into various hymnals in Great Britain and America, sometimes slightly altered, as "As changing as the moon." Original text as above. It is somewhat curious that Scott did not include this hymn in his Lyric Poems and Hymns, 1773. [William T. Brooke]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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