O Life and Light

I.
O Life and light who deigned to bless
Our fathers in the wilderness,
More life, more light we ask of Thee
To keep our free homes ever free.

II.
We stretch our two hands, Prayer and Praise,
Above the past and future days,
While o’er the present our full hearts
Pour thanks for what Thy love imparts.

III.
Thy love, O Lover of the brave,
We know how strong it is to save,
And how its living wells o’er-flowed,
To cheer our founder’s stormy road.

IV.
He came to plant with reverent toil,
The tree of freedom in our soil,
And while his faith and love survive,
Its broadening boughs shall o’er us thrive.

V.
Thou Life, whose springs have nursed that tree,
Still keep our free homes ever free.
O not in the steel-clad arm of a tyrannous power is our trust,
The Rock that can never be moved is the law of the true and the just.

VI.
God over us — light and love, God under us — strength and will,
God in and around us — truth and liberty deep and still’
Herein shall we live and move and our being firmly hold,
That the land of our love may be strong when the floods are over it rolled.
O God if we come to be crowned we are crowned on the bended knee,
And for all that we fail of Thy law, we are humble in heart before Thee.