Jesus, our mighty Lord

Jesus, our mighty Lord. F. Bland Tucker* (1895-1984). This was printed in H40 with a first verse beginning: Master of eager youth, Controlling, guiding, Lifting our hearts to truth, New power providing; Shepherd of innocence, Thou art our Confidence; To thee, our sure Defence, We bring our praises. The first stanza was omitted and stanza 2 changed from ‘Thou art’ to ‘Jesus’ in H82. The reason given was that the imagery seemed ‘more congenial to modern thought’ than the original stanza 1 had been (The Hymnal 1982 Companion, volume 3B, p. 900, note to hymn 478). It has lost something of the hymn’s original flavour, which was that of an early Christian hymn designed to instruct...