It Sounds Along the Ages

Top Text Author Text Info Tune Timeline Page Scans Instances

It sounds along the ages

Author: William Channing Gannett
Published in 6 hymnals

Representative Text

1 It sounds along the ages,
soul answering to soul;
it kindles on the pages
of every Bible scroll;
the psalmist heard and sang it,
from martyr lips it broke,
and prophet tongues out-rang it
till sleeping nations woke.

2 From Sinai’s cliffs it echoed,
it breathed from Buddha’s tree,
it charmed in Athens’ market,
it hallowed Galilee;
the hammer stroke of Luther,
the Pilgrims’ seaside prayer,
the oracles of Concord
one holy word declare.

3 It calls — and lo, new justice!
It speaks — and lo, new truth!
In ever nobler stature
and unexhausted youth.
Forever on resounding,
and knowing nought of time,
our laws but catch the music
of its eternal chime.

Source: Singing the Living Tradition #187

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

Author: William Channing Gannett

Gannett, William Channing, M.A., s. of Dr. Ezra Stiles Gannett, was b. at Boston, March 13, 1840, and educated at Harvard College, 1860, and the Divinity School, Cambridge. Entered the Unitarian Ministry in 1868, and after filling several pastorates he became Pastor of the Unitarian Church at Rochester, N.Y., 1889. Mr. Gannett's hymns, mainly written for special occasions, were included in great part in The Thought of God in Hymns and Poems, Boston, 1st Series 1885,2nd Series 1894, the combined production of F. L. Hosmer (q.v.) and himself. Of Mr. Gannett's hymns the following are in common use:— 1. Bring, 0 morn, thy music [God Everlasting.] Written in 1893, and printed in A Chorus of Faith, being an account and resume of the Parli… Go to person page >

^ top

Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	It sounds along the ages
Title:	It Sounds Along the Ages
Author:	William Channing Gannett
Meter:	7.6.7.6 D
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain