Praise God, our Maker and our Friend;
Praise Him through time, till time shall end,
Till psalm and song His name adore
Through Heaven’s great day of evermore.
O Thou not made with hands,
Not throned above the skies,
Nor walled with shining walls.
Nor framed with stones of price,
More bright than gold or gem,
God’s own Jerusalem!
Where’er the gentle heart
Finds courage from above;
Where’er the heart forsook
Warms with the breath of love;
Where faith bids fear depart,
City of God! thou art.
Thou art where’er the proud
In humbleness melts down;
Where self itself yields up;
Where martyrs win their crown;
Where faithful souls possess
Themselves in perfect peace.
Where in life’s common ways
With cheerful feet we go;
Where in His steps we tread
Who trod the way of woe;
Where He is in the heart,
City of God! thou art.
Not throned above the skies
Nor golden-walled afar,
But where Christ’s two or three
In His name gathered are;
Be in the midst of them,
God’s own Jerusalem!
Iprae: sequar.
Thou sayst, “Take up thy cross
O man, and follow me;
The night is black, the feet are slack,
Yet we would follow Thee.
But O, clear Lord, we cry,
That we Thy face could see!
Thy bessèd face one moment’s space —
Then might we follow Thee!
Dim tracts of time divide
Those golden days from me;
Thy voice comes strange o’er years of change;
How can I follow Thee?
Comes faint and far Thy voice
From vales of Galilee;
Thy vision fades in ancient shades;
How should we follow Thee?
[Unchanging law binds all,
And Nature all we see;
Thou art a star, far off, too far,
Too far to follow Thee.
Ah, sense-bound heart and blind!
Is nought but what we see?
Can time undo what once was true;
Can we not follow Thee?
Is what we trace of law
The whole of God’s decree?
Does our brief span grasp Nature’s plan
And bid not follow Thee?]
O heavy cross — of faith
In what we cannot see!
As once of yore, Thyself restore
And help to follow Thee!
If not as once Thou cam’st
In true humanity,
Come yet as guest within the breast
That burns to follow Thee.
‘Within our heart of hearts
In nearest nearness be
Set up Thy throne within Thine own:
Go, Lord: we follow Thee.
Infelix, quis me liberabit?
We name Thy name, O God,
As our God call on Thee,
Though the dark heart meantime
Far from Thy ways may be.
And we can own Thy law,
And we can sing Thy songs,
While the sad inner soul
To sin and shame belongs.
On us Thy love may glow,
As the pure midday fire
On some foul spot looks down;
And yet the mire be mire.
Then spare us not Thy fires,
The searching light and pain;
Burn out our sin; and, last,
With Thy love heal again.
O God of Truth, whose living Word
Upholds whate’er hath breath.
Look down on Thy creation, Lord,
Enslaved by sin and death.
Set up Thy standard Lord that we,
Who claim a heavenly birth,
May march with Thee to smite the lies
That vex Thy groaning earth.
Ah! would we join that blest array,
And follow in the might
Of Him the Faithful and the True,
In raiment clean and white!
We fight for truth, we fight for God,
Poor slaves of lies and sin!
He who would fight for Thee on earth
Must first be true within.
Then, God of truth, for whom we long,
Thou who wilt hear our prayer,
Do Thine own battle in our hearts,
And slay the falsehood there.
Still smite! still burn! till naught is left
But God’s own truth and love;
Then, Lord, as morning dew come down,
Rest on us from above.
Yea, come! then, tried as in the fire,
From every lie set free,
Thy perfect truth shall dwell in us,
And we shall live in Thee.
Though we long, in sin-wrought blindness,
From thy gracious paths have strayed,
Cold to Thee and all Thy kindness,
Wilful, reckless, or afraid
Through dim clouds that gather round us
Thou hast sought, and Thou hast found us.
Oft from Thee we veil our faces,
Children-like, to cheat Thine eyes;
Sin, and hope to hide the traces;
From ourselves, ourselves disguise;
‘Neath the webs enwoven round us
Thy soul-piercing glance has found us.
Sudden, ‘midst our idle chorus,
O’er our sin Thy thunders roll,
Death his signal waves before us,
Night and terror take the soul;
Till through double darkness round us
Looks a star, — and Thou hast found us.
O most merciful, most holy,
Light Thy wanderers on their way;
Keep us ever Thine, Thine wholly,
Suffer us no more to stray!
Cloud and storm oft gather round us;
We were lost, but Thou hast found us.
Thrice-holy name! — that sweeter sounds
Than streams which down the valley run,
And tells of more than human love,
And more than human power in one;
First o’er the manger-cradle heard,
Heard since through all the choirs on high;
O Child of Mary, Son of God,
Eternal, hear Thy children’s cry!
While at Thy blessèd name we bow,
Lord Jesus, be amongst us now
Within our earth-dimmed souls call up
The vision of Thy human years;
The mount of the transfigured form;
The garden of the bitter tears;
The cross uprear’d in darkening skies;
The thorn-wreathed head; the bleeding side;
And whisper in the heart, “For you,
For you I left the heavens, and died.”
While at the blessèd name we bow,
Lord Jesus, be amongst us now!
Ah! with faith’s surest inmost eye
The riven rock-hewn bed we see,
Untreasured of its heavenly guest, —
Triumphant over death in Thee!
And O! when Thou, our Saviour Judge,
Again shall come in glory here,
With love upon Thy children look,
And bid us read our pardon clear!
While at the blessèd name we bow,
Lord Jesus, be amongst us now!