My plan for looking through the Praise to God hymnal, was to concentrate on the smaller collections it sourced for hymns, but as I don’t have a copy of the Living Parish Hymnal, I had a look at the very few songs from that collection not already covered here from other places.
I have blogged the tune by John Goss before, and even a form of the words when looking at CWB II, but the words here are somewhat different. In PTG they note their verses one and two as G W Russell, alt, and a third verse by Anthony Newman, the editor of LPH. Godsongs cites other sources that say the text is anonymous and CWB II and the Pius X hymnal agree.
Oddly, the editors of PTG leave the “thee” alone, whereas they usually stripped out archaisms. The language is rather triumphalist, but that comes with the era I supppose.
I made a less strident, but still fake organ backing on BIAB:
1 Thee, O Christ, the prince of ages,
Thee, the nations’ glorious king,
Praise we now with exultation,
Saints and angels answering,
And to thee with meek devotion,
Hearts and minds and senses bring.
2 Come, O Lord, assume thy kingship,
Rebel hearts thy pow’r can gain;
Bend the stubborn will of rulers,
Who from homage still refrain:
In the home as in the city
Be supreme, O Christ, and reign.
3 Unity as thou intended
All thy people long to see,
That one holy church united
May adore and worship thee,
Who upon the cross uplifted
Draws us all in charity.
The original third verse from the PIUS X Hymnal is a hoot:
From our own dear land Australia,
Drive the night of heresy.
That, in holy church united
All may love and worship thee,
Who upon the cross uplifted,
Drawest all in charity.
I think Anthony Newman did a fine job fixing that.