1. O WHERE are kings and empires now
Of old that went and came?
But Holy Church is praying yet,
A thousand years the same.
2. Mark ye her holy battlements,
And her foundations strong;
And hear within, the solemn voice,
And her unending song.
3. For not like kingdoms of the world.
The Holy Church of God!
Though earthquake shocks are rocking her,
And tempests are abroad;
4. Unshaken as eternal hills,
Immovable she stands
A mountain that shall fill the earth,
A fane unbuilt by hands.
1. THERE is a little lonely fold,
Whose flock One Shepherd keeps,
Through summer's heat and winter's cold,
With eye that never sleeps.
2. By evil beast, or burning sky,
Or damp of midnight air,
Not one in all that flock shall die
Beneath that Shepherd's care.
3. For if, unheeding or beguiled,
In danger's path they roam,
His pity follows through the wild,
And guards them safely home.
4. O, gentle Shepherd, still behold
Thy helpless charge in me;
And take a wanderer to Thy fold,
That treinbling turns to Thee.
1. A MOTHER may forgetful be,
For human love is frail;
But Thy Creator's love to thee,
O Zion! can not fail.
2. No! thy dear name engraven stands,
In characters of love,
On thy almighty Father's hands;
And never shall remove.
3. Before His ever watchful eye
Thy mournful state appears,
And every groan, and every sigh,
Divine compassion hears.
4. O Zion! learn to doubt no more,
Be every fear suppressed;
Unchanging truth, and love, and power,
Dwell in thy Saviour's breast.
1. How sweet and awful is the place,
With Christ within the doors;
While everlasting love displays
The choicest of her stores!
2. While all our hearts, and all our songs,
Join to admire the feast,
Each of us cries, with thankful tongues-
"Lord, why was I a guest?
3. "Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
And enter while there's room,
When thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?"
4. 'Twas the same love that spread the feast,
That sweetly drew us in;
Else we had still refused to taste,
And perished in our sin.
5. Pity the nations, O our God!
Constrain the earth to come;
Send Thy victorious word abroad,
And bring the strangers home.
1. If human kindness meets return,
And owns the grateful tie;
If tender thoughts within us burn,
To feel a friend is nigh;—
2. O, shall not warmer accents tell
The gratitude we owe
To Him, who died, our fears to quell-
Who bore our guilt and woe!
3. While yet in anguish He surveyed
Those pangs He would not flee,
What love His latest words displayed-
"Meet and remember me!"
4. Remember Thee-Thy death, Thy shame,
Our sinful hearts to share!-
O memory! leave no other name
But His recorded there.
1. LORD, may the spirit of this feast-
The earnest of Thy love—
Maintain a dwelling in our breast,
Until we meet above.
2. The healing sense of pardoned sin,
The hope that never tires,
The strength a pilgrim's race to win,
The joy that heaven inspires.
3. Still may their light our duties trace
In lines of hallowed flame,
Like that upon the prophet's face,
When from the mount he came.
4. But if no more with kindred dear
The broken bread we share,
Nor at the banquet-board appear
To breathe the grateful prayer;—
5. Forget us not-when on the bed
Of dire disease we waste,
Or to the chambers of the dead,
And bar of judgment haste.
6. Forget not-Thou who bore the woe
Of Calvary's fatal tree-
Those who within these courts below
Have thus remembered Thee.
1. MANY centuries have fled
Since our Saviour broke the bread
And this sacred feast ordain'd,
Ever by His church retain'd:
Those His body who discern,
Thus shall meet till His return.
2. Through the church's long eclipse,
When, from priest or pastor's lips,
Truth divine was never heard-
'Mid the famine of the word,
Still these symbols witness gave
To His love who died to save.
3. All who bear the Saviour's name,
Here their common faith proclaim;
Though diverse in tongue or rite,
Here, one body to unite;
Breaking thus one mystic bread,
Members of one common Head.
4. Come, the blessed emblems share,
Which the Saviour's death declare;
Come, on truth immortal feed;
For His flesh is meat indeed:
Saviour! witness with the sign,
That our ransomed souls are Thine.
1. On the night of that last supper,
Seated with His chosen band,
Christ, as food to all His brethren,
Gives Himself with His own hand.
2. He, as man with man conversing,
Staid, the seeds of truth to sow;
Then He closed, in solemn order,
Wondrously, His life of woe.
3. Lo! o'er ancient forms departing,
Newer rites of grace prevail;
Faith for all defects supplying,
Where the feeble senses fail.
4. To the everlasting Father,
Through the Son who reigns on high,
Be salvation, honor, blessing,
Might, and endless majesty.
1. How condescending and how kind
Was God's eternal Son!
Our misery reached His heavenly mind,
And pity brought Him down.
2. He sunk beneath our heavy woes,
To raise us to His throne;
There's ne'er a gift His hand bestows
But cost His heart a groan.
3. This was compassion, like a God,
That when the Saviour knew
The price of pardon was His blood,
His pity ne'er withdrew.
4. Now, though He reigns exalted high,
His love is still as great;
Well He remembers Calvary,
Nor let His saints forget.
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