To Him who is the Life of life, My soul its vows would pay

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To Him who is the Life of life, My soul its vows would pay

Author: Alice Cary
Tune: ST. FRANCES (Löhr)
Published in 3 hymnals

Representative Text

1 To him who is the Life of life,
My soul its vows would pay;
He leads the flowery seasons on,
And gives the storm its way.

2 The winds run backward to their caves
At his divine command,
And the great deep he holds within
The hollow of his hand.

3 He clothes the grass, he makes the rose
To wear her good attire;
The moon he gives her patient grace,
And all the stars their fire.

4 He hears the hungry raven's cry,
And sends her young their food;
And through our evil intimates
His purposes of good.

5 He stretches out the north; he binds
The tempest in his care;
The mountains can not strike their roots
So deep he is not there.

6 Hid in the garment of his works,
We feel his presence still
With us, and through us fashioning
The mystery of his will.

Source: The Voice of Praise: a collection of hymns for the use of the Methodist Church #134

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Author: Alice Cary

Alice Cary (1820-1871) was born and raised in Mount Healthy in Hamilton County, Ohio. Her family had come from Lyme, New Hampshire when her grandfather was given land in return for his service in the Continental Army. She had been nationally recognized as an interpreter of pioneer traditions. Her short story collections depict Mount Healthy as it was transformed from an isolated rural village to a Cincinnati suburb. She and her sister Phoebe wrote for local religious periodicals before Alice moved to New York City. John Greenleaf Whitier praised Alice's stories as "simple, natural, truthful [with] a keen sense of humor and pathos of the comedy and tragedy of life in the country." Her hymn "Along the mountain track of life" was published i… Go to person page >

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