LUMEN HILARE
Venite, Audite, Gaudete!
How Can I Keep From Singing
Musical Arrangement by Mark Ruttle
The music for How Can I Keep From Singing? (also known by its incipit "My Life Flows On in Endless Song") was written by Robert Lowry. The song is frequently, though erroneously, cited as a traditional Quaker or Shaker hymn as twentieth-century Quakers adopted it as their own and use it widely today. The words were first published anonymously in 1868.
My life flows on in endless song above earth's lamentation,
I hear the sweet though far-off hymn that hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear the music ringing,
It finds an echo in my soul, how can I keep from singing.
I lift my eyes the cloud grows thin, I see the blue above it,
And day by day this pathways smooths, since first I learned to love it.
The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart, a fountain ever springing.
All things are mine, since I am His, How can I keep from singing.