Light of Ages and of Nations

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Light of ages and of nations

Author: Samuel Longfellow
Tune: AUSTRIAN HYMN
Published in 15 hymnals

Piano/Organ
	A Mighty Fortress: Piano Meditations on…

Instrumental
	BRASS ACCOMPANIMENTS FOR HYMNSINGING

Handbells
	Hymns of Love and Praise (Distinctive Se…

Representative Text

1 Light of ages and of nations,
every race and every time
has received thine inspirations,
glimpses of thy truth sublime.
Always spirits in rapt vision
passed the heavenly veil within,
always hearts bowed in contrition
found salvation from their sin.

2 Reason’s noble aspiration truth
in growing clearness saw;
conscience spoke its condemnation,
or proclaimed eternal law.
While thine inward revelations
told thy saints their prayers were heard,
prophets to the guilty nations
spoke thine everlasting word.

3 Lo, that word abideth ever;
revelation is not sealed;
answering now to our endeavor,
truth and right are still revealed.
That which came to ancient sages,
Greek, Barbarian, Roman, Jew,
written in the soul’s deep pages,
shines today, forever new.

Source: Singing the Living Tradition #189

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Author: Samuel Longfellow

Longfellow, Samuel, B. A., brother of the Poet, was born at Portland, Maine, June 18, 1819, and educated at Harvard, where he graduated in Arts in 1839, and in Theology in 1846. On receiving ordination as an Unitarian Minister, he became Pastor at Fall River, Massachusetts, 1848; at Brooklyn, 1853; and at Germantown, Pennsylvania, 1860. In 1846 he edited, with the Rev. S. Johnson (q. v.), A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion. This collection was enlarged and revised in 1848. In 1859 his Vespers was published, and in 1864 the Unitarian Hymns of the Spirit , under the joint editorship of the Rev. S. Johnson and himself. His Life of his brother, the Poet Longfellow, was published in 1886. To the works named he contributed the follow… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Light of ages and of nations
Title:	Light of Ages and of Nations
Author:	Samuel Longfellow
Meter:	8.7.8.7 D
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Tune

AUSTRIAN HYMN

BEECHER

John Zundel's BEECHER (named after Henry Ward Beecher, his pastor) was first published in his Christian Heart Songs (1870) as a setting for Charles Wesley's "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" (568). The tune is also known as ZUNDEL. Approximating the shape of a rounded bar form (AA'BA'), BEECHER is…

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IN BABILONE

IN BABILONE is a traditional Dutch melody that appeared in Oude en Nieuwe Hollantse Boerenlities en Contradansen (Old and New Dutch Peasant Songs and Country Dances), c. 1710. Ralph Vaughan Williams (PHH 316) discovered this tune as arranged by Julius Rontgen (b. Leipzig, Germany, 1855; d. Utrecht,…

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