Change to the Unchanging

LORD, THOU hast set us amid unresting change.
Day follows night; season, season; year, year;
not one the same, nor yet our part in any:
centuries, eras pass, none like the last;
nature herself is servant to the aeons;
all things evolve and alter:
change upon change that no man can stay,
but each must share.

Such thy decree: thou didst accept it for thyself.
That was the light of God coming into the world.
a human babe.
That was the love of God growing in stature
day after day as we.
The years of the Eternal drove onward to a cross;
God’s own Son died.

But Christ is risen, is risen!
and God, for the great love wherewith he loved us,
has quickened us together with him.
Now One reigns on a timeless throne,
who changes not.
And God has given us to sit together
in heavenly places with Christ.
It is the end of change.
To abide in HIM.

O death of Christ, the death of death to us!
O life of Christ, now ours, and ours for ever!
Lord, thou wentest our way to become our Way,
and art our end without an end.
Transform our transient lot, and bring to birth
within our nature THINE,
THINE which abides for ever,
THYSELF in us.