O Lord and Master of Us All

O Lord and Mas­ter of us all

Whate’er our name or sign

We own Thy sway

we hear Thy call

We test our lives by Thine.

Thou judg­est us; Thy pur­ity

Doth all our lusts con­demn;

The love that draws us near­er Thee

Is hot with wrath to them.

Our thoughts lie op­en to Thy sight

And nak­ed to Thy glance

Our sec­ret sins are in the light

Of Thy pure coun­te­nance.

Yet weak and blind­ed though we be

Thou dost our serv­ice own;

We bring our va­ry­ing gifts to Thee

And Thou re­ject­est none.

To Thee our full hu­man­ity

Its joys and pains be­long;

The wrong of man to man on Thee

Inflicts a deep­er wrong.

Who hates

hates Thee; who loves

be­comes

Therein to Thee all­ied:

All sweet ac­cords of hearts and homes

In Thee are mul­ti­plied.

Apart from Thee all gain is loss

All labor vain­ly done;

The so­lemn sha­dow of the cross

Is bet­ter than the sun.

Our friend

our bro­ther

and our Lord

What may Thy serv­ice be?

Nor name

nor form

nor ri­tu­al word

But simply fol­low­ing Thee.

We faint­ly hear

we dim­ly see

In dif­fer­ing phrase we pray;

But dim or clear

we own in Thee

The Light

the Truth

the Way.