God Save the King

God save our gracious king,
Long live our noble king,
God save the king.
Send him victorious
Happy and glorious
Long to reign over us
God save the king.

O Lord and God arise,
Scatter his enemies
And make them fall
Confound their politics
Frustrate their knavish tricks
On Thee our hopes we fix,
God save the king.

Thy choicest gifts in store
Oh him be pleased to pour,
Long may he reign.
May he defend our laws
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice
God save the king.

Nor on this land alone,
But be God's mercies known
From shore to shore
Lord, make the nation see
That men should brothers be,
And form one family
The wide world o'er

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This tune, one of the best known in the world, is sung
throughout the British empire as "God Save the King," in the USA
as "My Country Tis Of Thee, " in the German Reich as "Heil Dir im
Siegerkranz," and in many other countries under different names.
The song has never been the official British national anthem,
though it has been sung generally with that significance. But on
October 20th 1946, in St. Paul's Cathedral, King George lent his
presence and approval to a change in the traditional form. In an
effort to express the ideal of world brotherhood, the second
stanza above was dropped and the new fourth stanza, written almost a
century ago by Rev. W.E.Hickson (1803-1870), was added to the
end, but never generally accepted.
DC