This is a hymn I’d never come across that is unusually direct in its exploration of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church. The text is by Timothy Rees and it is set here to ABBOT’S LEIGH by Cyril Vincent Taylor, which is an extraordinary tune. The first two lines are workmanlike but the third and fourth are remarkable. There are, however, some octave leaps to watch out for.
More fake BIAB organ:
1 Holy Spirit, ever dwelling
In the holiest realms of light;
Holy Spirit, ever brooding
O’er a world of gloom and night;
Holy Spirit, ever raising
Sons of earth to thrones on high;
Living, life-imparting Spirit,
You we praise and magnify.2 Holy Spirit, ever living
As the Church’s very life;
Holy Spirit, ever striving
through her in a ceaseless strife;
Holy Spirit, ever forming
In the Church the mind of Christ;
You we praise with endless worship
For your fruit and gifts unpriced.3 Holy Spirit, ever working
Through the Church’s ministry;
Quickening, strengthening and absolving,
Setting captive sinners free;
Holy Spirit, ever binding
Age to age and soul, to soul
In a fellowship unending,
You we worship and extol.
There was a fourth verse that is usually omitted:
Holy Spirit, fount and channel
Of the sevenfold gifts of grace,
May we in our hearts for ever
Give to holy fear a place.
Fill our lives, O Lord, with worship,
As with service gladly done;
Bend our souls in adoration
Of the eternal Three in One.
