O loving Father, to thy care We give again this child of thine, Baptised and blessed with faithful prayer And sealed with Love's victorious sign. As Christ, thy Son, did not refuse The homage of the children's cry, So teach him childhood's gifts to use Thy name to praise and magnify. Through youth and age, through shine and shade, Grant him to run his earthly race, Forgetting not that man was made To show thy glory and thy grace: A loving child, a faithful friend, A light in doubt and darkness given To point the path that knows no end Save in the fuller light of heaven; Till, at the last, before thy throne He lays his earthly armour down, His task of loving service done, And, in thy mercy, takes his crown.