Holy, Holy, Holy

• The Song

Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, Holy, Holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, Blessèd Trinity!

Holy, Holy, Holy! All the saints adore Thee,
Casting down their golden crowns
around the glassy sea;
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
Who was, and is, and evermore shall be.

Holy, Holy, Holy! though the darkness hide Thee,
Though the eye of sinful man
Thy glory may not see;
Only Thou art Holy; there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in power, in love, and purity.

Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy Name,
in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, Holy, Holy; merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, Blessèd Trinity!

• The Author

Reginald Heber of Hodnet, England, served as a parish priest sixteen years before he accepted a call to Calcutta, India.  He died at the age of forty-three while serving there as bishop of the Anglican Church.   Heber wrote the song being impressed by the holiness of God.  “Only Thou art Holy” he wrote, we usually sing it to the tune “Nicaea” named after the church council that met in 325 A.D. which formulated the Nicene Creed and affirmed the doctrine of the Trinity.