Light of the World we Hail Thee

This is a hymn of praise of Christ under the title "Light of the World. It was written by Church of Ireland clergyman John S. B. Monsell (1811-1875) and first published in Hymns of Love and Praise, 1863.

With meter 76 76 D, tunes that it has been set to include:

SALVE DOMINE by Lawrence W Watson (1909)
LIGHT OF THE WORLD by William W Gilchrist (1895)
ST THEODULPH by Melchior Teschner (1613).

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PowerPoint slides

Examples:

Instrumental - piano, tune SALVE DOMINE

Lyrics:

Light of the world, we hail Thee, flushing the eastern skies;
Never shall darkness veil Thee again from human eyes;
Too long, alas, withholden, now spread from shore to shore;
Thy light, so glad and golden, shall set on earth no more.

Light of the world, Thy beauty steals into every heart,
And glorifies with duty life’s poorest, humblest, part;
Thou robest in Thy splendor the simple ways of men,
And helpest them to render light back to Thee again.

Light of the world, before Thee our spirits prostrate fall;
We worship, we adore Thee, Thou Light, the Life of all;
With Thee is no forgetting of all Thine hand hath made;
Thy rising hath no setting, Thy sunshine hath no shade.

Light of the world, illumine this darkened earth of Thine,
Till everything that’s human be filled with what’s divine;
Till every tongue and nation, from sin’s dominion free,
Rise in the new creation which springs from love and Thee.