Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Original Hymns. III. Laying the First Stone of a Church

John Mason Neale (1818–1866)

O LORD of Hosts, Whose glory fills

The bounds of the eternal hills,

And yet vouchsafes, in Christian lands,

To dwell in temples made with hands:

Grant that all we, who here to-day,

Rejoicing, this foundation lay,

May be in very deed Thine Own,

Built on the precious Corner-stone.

Endue the creatures with Thy grace

That shall adorn Thy dwelling-place:

The beauty of the oak and pine,

The gold and silver, make them Thine.

To Thee they all belong; to Thee

The treasures of the earth and sea;

And when we bring them to Thy throne,

We but present Thee with Thine own.

Endue the hearts that guide with skill;

Preserve the hands that work from ill;

That we, who these foundations lay,

May raise the topstone in its day.

Both now and ever, Lord, protect

The temple of Thine own elect;

Be Thou in them, and they in Thee,

O ever-blessèd Trinity!