O Captain of God’s Host

O Cap­tain of God’s host

whose dread­ful might

Led forth to war the arm­èd se­ra­phim

And from the star­ry height

Subdued in burn­ing light

Cast down that an­cient dra­gon dark and grim;

Thine an­gels

Christ

we laud in so­lemn lays

Our el­der breth­ren of the crys­tal sky

Who ’mid Thy glo­ry’s blaze

The cease­less an­them raise

And gird Thy throne in faith­ful min­is­try.

We ce­le­brate their love

whose view­less wing

Hath left for us so oft their man­sion high

The mer­cies of their king

To mor­tal saints to bring

Or guard the couch of slum­ber­ing in­fan­cy.

But Thee

the First and Last

we glo­ri­fy

Who

when Thy world was sunk in death and sin

Not with Thine hi­er­ar­chy

The ar­mies of the sky

But didst with Thine own arm the bat­tle win;

Alone didst pass the dark and dis­mal shore

Alone didst tread the wine­press

and alone

All glo­ri­ous in Thy gore

Didst light and life re­store

To us who lay in dark­ness and un­done.

Therefore with an­gels and arch­an­gels we

To Thy dear love our thank­ful chor­us raise

And tune our songs to Thee

Who art

and art to be

And

end­less as Thy mer­cies

sound Thy praise.