O Lord of life, thy quickening voice

O Lord of life, thy quickening voice. George MacDonald* (1824-1905). From The Disciple, and Other Poems (1860), where it was entitled ‘Morning Hymn’. It is an invigorating hymn, well calculated to ‘quicken’ the mind and heart at the beginning of the day. It had six stanzas. It began with two verses, changed in the Congregational Church Hymnal (1887), presumably with MacDonald’s approval, because they appear in this form in his Poetical Works (1893): 18601887/1893 Father in heaven, I praise thy name With sounding words of song; With gladsome words aloud proclaim That I to thee belong. I see thy light, I feel thy wind, The world is all a sign; Each thing that wakes my heart and mind, My...