Lord God, by whom all change is wrought

Lord God, by whom all change is wrought. Thomas Hornblower Gill* (1819-1906). Written in 1869 and first published in the American collection Songs of the Spirit (New York, 1871) (JJ, p.422). Various English Congregational and Unitarian hymn books went on to include it and Gill eventually published it in the Second Edition of The Golden Chain of Praise (1894). It had six stanzas. Most modern hymn books abridge to five (HP) or four (RS). It is based on the words of St Augustine* concerning God: ‘Immutabilis mutans omnia’, which can be translated ‘Most constant, yet changing all things’. The stanza omitted from HP is the original stanza 3: Each steadfast promise we possess; Thine everlasting...

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