How do we imagine beauty - Against a bleak backdrop something of a contrast...helpful? I hope...a completely new text. How do we imagine beauty, wonder, words cannot express? Something felt, beyond our vision, love incarnate, nothing less? Here and now all life is timeless, here we're lifted out of self, now beyond all expectation, human sense, or worldly wealth. Can eternity be fathomed? Glimpse the feeling, sense the sound, breathe the spirit of creation, ground of being, sought and found. Here a mystery unravels, yet withheld from human sight: simply trust, with faith the given, God is beauty, love and light. Andrew Pratt written 22/6/2025 Words 2025 © Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd. Metre: 8.7.8.7 D Tune: CALON LAN
Category: Hymns
‘Trust in God we cannot see’ – a hymn of faith by Marjorie Dobson
‘Trust in God we cannot see' – a hymn of faith by Marjorie Dobson
1 Trust in a God we cannot see
turns reason inside out.
Faith is a rough and winding road
with stumbling blocks of doubt.
2 We follow where we think God leads,
although the road seems strange:
but faith demands an open mind
and willingness to change.
3 When crisis clouds of doubt disturb
and shake our faith with fear,
it can be hard to trust that God
will, one day, make things clear.
4 Yet when God’s call breaks through again,
persistent as before,
the choice is plain: ignore, stagnate,
or fire our faith once more.
Marjorie Dobson (born 1940)
Words © 2019 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk .
Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd
Metre: CM
Tune: LONDON NEW
Published in Unravelling the Mysteries
‘When those whose thoughts are crystal clear’ – A man who had demons met Jesus…a hymn…
When those whose thoughts are crystal clear - Luke: 8: 23-39 A man from the region of the Gerasenes, who had demons met Jesus…a hymn…
1 When those whose thoughts are crystal clear
meet those who are confused,
reality can seem disturbed
and sense can feel abused.
We stand upon a sheer abyss
while vertigo takes hold:
the air above, the sea beneath,
our actions uncontrolled.
2 Was that the way that man once felt,
as though he was possessed;
estranged from all the world around,
undignified, unblessed?
And then when Jesus spoke to him,
that contact self-assured,
like raging swine his fever left,
his sanity restored.
3 And still we find we need the help
of those who stand as friends,
when in the nightmare of distress
none hears or comprehends.
God stand beside us, let us be
the channels of your grace,
that we might set each other free
from feelings that debase.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2015 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre: CMD
Tune: COE FEN
I stroll along the forest paths – Pentecost goes on…
I stroll along the forest paths – hymn for 21st June – life in the Spirit!
I stroll along the forest paths, I ride upon the wind.
I sail across the ocean waves, or feast on tamarind,
but all the wealth and wonder here is empty, pale and trite
against the vibrant colours of your spirit’s flaming light.
Your spirit turns me round again when I'm against the wall.
Your spirit lifts me up again, you will not let me fall.
And when I lie asleep at night, in incandescent streams
your love cascades around my life, the goal of all my dreams.
I cast my life into that love, ignited by its flame.
Since meeting you each day I live can never be the same.
In concert and in harmony our lives will merge as one,
in singing, dancing joy until the setting of the sun.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2003 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre: 14 14 14 14
Tune: THE LINCOLNSHIRE POACHER
The comprehensive love of God – the Spirit will not be restrained – hymn for Pentecost
The comprehensive love of God - the Spirit will not be restrained,
1 The comprehensive love of God
will reach all humankind,
the Spirit will not be restrained,
she cannot be confined.
The breath of God infuses all
who live a life on earth,
the spark of God’s divinity
is with us at our birth.
2 So how can we deny this love
to those whom God would own,
for every person that we see,
by God, is fully known.
These are our sisters, brothers, friends,
they are our kith and kin,
we have one parent, yes one God,
and here we must begin.
3 How can we set aside the ones
so treasured by our God,
who walk upon the self-same earth
that we, ourselves, have trod?
Then let us all embrace as one
all nations and all creeds,
to show God’s love to each and all
in words and human deeds.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2015 Stainer and Bell Ltd., London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre: 8 6 8 6 D
Tune: KINGSFOLD; ELLACOMBE
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