Except the Lord Conduct the Plan

Lyrics

• Copyright: Public Domain

Lyrics from A Collection of Sacred Hymns for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Europe, 1840

Hymn 125
8 8 6 8 8 6
1. Except the Lord conduct the plan,
The best concerted schemes are vain,
And never can succeed,
We spend our wretched strength for nought,
But if our works in thee are wrought,
They shall be blest indeed.

2. Lord if thou didst thyself inspire
Our souls with this intense desire,
Thy goodness to proclaim;
Thy glory if we now intend,
O let our deeds begin and end
Complete in Jesus's name!

3. In Jesus' name behold we meet,
Far from an evil world retreat,
And all its frantic ways;
One only thin resolved to know,
And square our useful lives below,
By reason and by grace.

4. Not in the tombs we pine to dwell,
Not in the dark monastic cell,
By vows and grates confined,
Freely to all ourselves we give;
Constrained by Jesus' love to live
The servants of mankind.

5. Now, Jesus, now thy love impart,
To govern each devoted heart,
And fit us for thy will!
Deep founded in the truth of grace,
Build up thy rising church, and place
The city on the hill.

6. O let our love and faith abound!
O let our lives to all around
With purest lustre shine:
That all around our works may see,
And give the glory, Lord, to thee!
The heavenly light divine.