Let Love Continue Long

Recently, I came across a discussion with an online contact, who had read a blog post by a local vicar who wrote about his recent visit to Rome. The blogger, the Revd David Stevenson, writing on the website of his church in Watford, quoted a verse from the well-known hymn My Song Is Love Unknown, which was is normally associated with Palm Sunday and holy week in the Christian church year.

Hymns for Living (1985): one of several hymnals used by Unitarians in the UK

The blogger, our mutual (online) acqauintance and I were all in agreement that My Song Is Love Unknown counts among our favourite hymns. The accompanying tune Love Unknown by John Ireland, makes for a stirring setting to some beautiful words from the seventeenth century, which take a deep look at the singer’s relationship with Christ.

The discussion reminded me of another set of words in one of the hymn books from my church, which adopt the same haunting tune by John Ireland. Let Love Continue Long is a hymn in 4 verses. Typical for many modern Unitarian hymns, it picks on a religiously neutral theme, here on the capacity of love to be a source of goodness, guidance and unity. The words are credited as “Traditional American, adapted by Berkley L. Moore,” an American Unitarian Universalist Minister.

Let love continue long,
And show to us the way,
And if that love be strong
No hurt can have a say;
And if that love remain but strong,
No hurt can ever have a say.

If love can not be found,
Though common faith prevail,
When love does not abound,
A common faith will fail.
When human love does not abound,
A common faith will always fail.

If we in love unite,
Debate can cause no strife:
For with this love in sight
Disputes enrich our life.
For with this bond of human love,
Disputes can mean a richer life.

May love continue long,
And lead us on our way:
For if that love be strong
No hurt can have a say.
For if that love remain but strong
No hurt can ever have a say.

I won’t claim the poetry makes any match with Samuel Crossman’s inspired words in My Song Is Love Unknown, but Let Love Continue Long still contains a poignant message, which we need to remind ourselves of again and again through the year.