1019. Give thanks to God and honour those

Author: Timothy Dudley-Smith

Give thanks to God, and honour those
whose fame was spread abroad,
whose well-remembered lives disclose
the glories of their Lord;
who held their just and gentle sway
in trust beneath his hand,
and humbly sought to serve their day
and work what God had planned.

2. His Name they lived to glorify
who gives the poet’s word,
the painter’s all-discerning eye,
the soul by music stirred;
and high among the human skills
of wisdom, science, art,
a virtue grace alone instils,
the pastor’s patient heart.

3. For teacher’s gift, for prophet’s fire,
for preachers of the word,
for all who still our souls inspire
we praise your Name, O Lord;
we seek to follow where they trod,
to reap what they have sown,
who spent themselves for love of God
and sought his praise alone.

4. And some there be who take their rest
in unremembered graves,
whose names are numbered with the blest
whom Jesus loves and saves;
who kept the faith, who ran the race,
whose work on earth is done:
may we, their children, know your grace
until the crown is won.