Thou art, O God, the life and light

Of all the wondrous world we see;

Its glow by day, its smile by night,

Are but reflections caught from thee;

Where’er we turn, thy glories shine,

And all things fair and bright are thine.

2 When day, with farewell beam, delays

Among the opening clouds of even,

And we can almost think we gaze,

Through opening vistas, into heaven—

Those hues that mark the sun’s decline,

So soft, so radiant, Lord, are thine.

3 When night, with wings of starry gloom,

O’ershadows all the earth and skies,

Like some dark, beauteous bird, whose plume

Is sparkling with unnumbered dyes—

That sacred gloom, those fires divine,

So grand, so countless, Lord, are thine.

4 When youthful Spring around us breathes,

Thy Spirit warms her fragrant sigh;

And every flower that Summer wreathes

Is born beneath thy kindling eye;

Where’er we turn, thy glories shine,

And all things fair and bright are thine.