O Thou Whose Spirit Witness Bears

O Thou Whose Spirit witness bears
Within our spirits free,
That we Thy children are and heirs
Of Thine eternity.

Here may this simple faith sublime
O’er-arch us like the sky;
Secure below the drift of time
Its firm foundations lie.

Our thought o’erflows each written scroll
Our creeds arise and fall;
The life of God within the soul
Lives and outlasts them all.

Author: Frederick Lucian Hosmer

Year: 1879

This text is a well-known hymn by the prominent Unitarian hymn-writer Frederick Lucian Hosmer (1840–1929). It first appeared in his collection 'The Thought of God in Hymns and Poems' (with co-author William Channing Gannett) in 1885, though the text itself dates from around 1879. No other common attributions exist for these lyrics.