LIGHT of the world, for ever, ever shining, There is no change in Thee; True light of life, all joy and health enshrining, Thou canst not fade nor flee.
Thou hast arisen, but Thou declinest never; Today shines as the past; All Thou hast been, Thou art, and shalt be ever, Brightness from first to last.
Night visits not Thy sky, nor storm, nor sadness; Day fills up all its blue, Unfailing beauty and unfaltering gladness, And love for ever new.
Light of the world, undimming and unsetting, O shine each mist away! Banish the fear, the falsehood, and the fretting; Be our unchanging day.
Horatius Bonar, 1808-89