Thy Name is Love!

1. Not what I am, O Lord, but what thou art;
That, that alone, can be my soul’s true rest;
Thy love, not mine, bids fear and doubt depart,
And stills the tempest of my tossing breast.

2. It is thy perfect love that casts out fear;
I know the voice that speaks the It is I,
And in these well-known words of heavenly cheer
I hear the joy that bids each sorrow fly.

3. Thy Name is Love! I hear it from yon Cross;
Thy Name is Love! I read it in yon tomb:
All meaner love is perishable dross,
But this shall light me through time’s thickest gloom.

4. Girt with the love of God on ev’ry side,
Breathing that love as heav’ns own healing air,
I work or wait, still following my Guide,
Braving each foe, escaping ev’ry snare.

5. It blesses now, and shall for ever bless;
It saves me now, and shall for ever save;
It holds me up in days of helplessness,
It bears me safely o’er each swelling wave.

6. ’Tis what I know of thee, my Lord and God,
That fills my soul with peace, my lips with song;
Thou art my health, my joy, my staff, my rod;
Leaning on Thee, in weakness I am strong.

7. I am all want and hunger; this faint heart
Pines for a fullness, which it finds not here;
Dear ones are leaving, and, as they depart,
Make room within for something yet more dear.

8. More of thyself, Oh, show me, hour by hour;
More of thy glory, O my God and Lord;
More of thyself in all thy grace and power;
More of thy love and truth, Incarnate Word.

Horatius Bonar (also known as Horace Bonar) wrote or published this hymn in 1861. In Hymns of Faith and Hope, Second Series, it is called “The Love that Passeth Knowledge.” Bonar, the son James Bonar and Marjory Pyott Maitland, was born at Edinburgh, Scotland in 1808. He was ordained in the Church of Scotland in 1837, and in 1843 he joined the Free Church of Scotland. He authored Kelso Tracts, other books, and numerous works of poetry. Horatius Bonar died at this home on July 31, 1889. He and his wife are buried in the Canongate Churchyard in Edinburgh.

This 10s. meter tune is often paired with the tune Langran, written by James Langran (1835-1909) in 1862.