SONG FOREVER NEW

by Mark Sirett

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Cypress Choral Music · Song Forever New

we hope to replace this simulation with genuine voices soon

LYRICS

Fill my life with praise,
That my whole being may proclaim
Your light and your ways,

Fill my life, Lord, with praise.

Not for the words alone,
Nor the praising heart,
I ask for a life of praise,

Of praise in every part!

Praise for the common things of life,
It’s going out and coming in.

Find praise in every deed and duty.

So shall each fear and care

Be turned into song.

And every winding way,

The echo still prolongs.

So shall you, Lord, my God,

From even me receive the glory due;

And so shall I begin on earth
The song forever new.

Horatius Bonar, (1808-1889) the author, was a well-educated Scotsman who became an ordained minister and co-founded, with Dr. Thomas Chalmers, the Free Church of Scotland. He had studied under Chalmers, a professor of divinity. Bonar served in Kelso and in 1866 became minister of the Chalmers Memorial Church in Edinburgh. How honoured he must have been! In 1883 Bonar was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church. He also did considerable work in the editing of church publications and wrote several hymns. Five of Bonar’s hymns are in the Salvation Army’s 1987 Song Book, but only two are included in the 2015 edition: the one above, and I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say .