God of the Ages UMH 698

“God of the Ages” (originally “God of Our Fathers”), its author’s one claim to literary fame, was written for a small rural parish in Brandon, Vt., for the nation’s centennial celebration in 1876.

The 1894 official hymnal of the Episcopal Church used the tune NATIONAL HYMN with this text and this has been the exclusive pairing ever since. The text with NATIONAL HYMN entered American Methodist hymnals in 1905.

This hymn’s stirring lyrics and majestic tune represent, albeit subtly, the common 19th-century assumption of Manifest Destiny: God will lead us from the war and pestilence of our earlier captivity to the freedom and light of peace.