"Sent Forth by God's Blessing"

In May last year, I transcribed "Sent Forth by God's Blessing" and found a number of features to write about.  All are within these two phrases (the first and second phrases, later repeated as the fourth and fifth phrases) from the tune "The Ash Grove":

The first two lines of the first verse are "The Supper is ended. / O now be extended."  "Extended" is sung with a melisma (A G F# D), and since it's spread out (spanning a fifth), there's a sense of the word's meaning.

In the first verse, there are three "ever"s sung with melismas in these phrases:  "With praise and thanksgiving / To God ever-living" (C B A G) and "Our faith ever sharing, / In love ever caring" (B D C and C B A G respectively).  For all of these, the extra syllables provide a musical sense of duration.