The Christian — Unfaithfulness Lamented

We all, O Lord, have gone astray

No. 569
Metre L. M.
Tune BACA.
Words Josiah Pratt.
Music William B. Bradbury.
Key E-flat major
Singing key E♭ major
Time 3/2
5 stanzas

Words

We all, O Lord, have gone astray,And wandered from thy heavenly way:The wilds of sin our feet have trod,Far from the paths of thee, our God.

In penitential grief we sigh,And lift to thee our humble cry,Won by thy love, we turn to HimWho died to save us from our sin.

Hear us, great Shepherd of thy sheep!Our wanderings heal, our footsteps keep:We seek thy sheltering fold again,Nor shall we seek thee, Lord, in vain.

O God! we praise thee for thy grace:How sweet the smiling of thy face!O let thy grace our hearts control,And fill with love each longing soul.

Teach us to know and love thy way;And grant, to life's remotest day,By thine unerring guidance led,Our willing feet thy paths may tread.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: running head «THE CHRISTIAN—UNFAITHFULNESS LAMENTED.» (hymn 569 opens the section); hymn number «569» (large), tune name «BACA. L. M.» centred over the music (condensed capitals and small capitals), «WILLIAM B. BRADBURY.» at the right (capitals and small capitals); printed vertically in the right margin beside system 1, reading downwards, «By per. Biglow & Main:» (the final mark looks like a colon on this scan — see uncertainties.md). Stanza 1 is interlinear, between the staves, one line per system, with «1.» before «We»: «1. We all, O Lord, have gone a-stray, And wandered from thy heavenly way: The wilds of» / «sin our feet have trod, Far from the paths of thee, our God, Far from the paths of thee, our God.» The music sings the fourth line twice, printed out in full under the staves — the stanza below gives the four verse lines once, as a poem, with the final reading «God.» (under the music the line ends first with «God,» and in the repeat with «God.»). Under the staves only «a-stray,» is hyphenated; «wandered» and «heavenly» are printed whole under two notes each. Stanzas 2–5 are printed as text in the left column below the music, under the reference line «428, 361, 431,» in italic figures (= the words may also be sung to the tunes of hymns 428, 361 or 431; the line ends with a comma), numbered «2»–«5» without periods (written «2.»–«5.» here, as in the other deliveries of this book), followed by «Josiah Pratt.» in italics. The print sets a thin space before «!» and «:» («sheep !», «keep :», «God !», «grace :», «face !», «way ;»); it is closed up here. The printer's apostrophe is written straight («life's»). All four lines of each stanza are set flush in the print (no alternating indentation). Spelling, punctuation and capitals are the print's.