God of Our Fathers

God of our fa­thers, whose al­migh­ty hand
Leads forth in beau­ty all the star­ry band
Of shin­ing worlds in splen­dor through the skies
Our grate­ful songs be­fore Thy throne arise.

Thy love di­vine hath led us in the past,
In this free land by Thee our lot is cast,
Be Thou our rul­er, guard­ian, guide and stay,
Thy Word our law, Thy paths our chos­en way.

From war’s alarms, from dead­ly pes­ti­lence,
Be Thy strong arm our ev­er sure de­fense;
Thy true re­li­gion in our hearts in­crease,
Thy boun­te­ous good­ness nour­ish us in peace.

Refresh Thy peo­ple on their toil­some way,
Lead us from night to nev­er end­ing day;
Fill all our lives with love and grace di­vine,
And glo­ry, laud, and praise be ev­er Thine.

Words: Daniel C. Roberts, 1876.