Archive for May 2015
Above: The Crest of the Reformed Church in America
A Scan from the Cover of Our Reformed Church, by Howard G. Hageman and Revised by Gregg A. Mast (New York, NY: Reformed Church Press, 1995)
Image Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
Mary Cornelia Bishop Gates (1842-1905) published in national magazines and served for many years on the Women’s Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church in America.
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Jesus, Now in Glory Dwelling:
https://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/jesus-now-in-glory-dwelling/
Rise on the Shadowed Nations:
https://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/rise-on-the-shadowed-nations/
Thy Love to Me, O Christ:
https://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2015/05/30/thy-love-to-me-o-christ/
Send Thou, O Lord, to Ev’ry Place:
https://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2015/05/30/send-thou-o-lord-to-evry-place/
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Above: Chapel, Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Athens, Georgia, March 15, 2014
Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta
Hymn Source = Songs of the Christian Life (1912), U.S. Congregationalist, via hymnary.org
Text by Mary Cornelia Bishop Gates (1842-1905)
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1. Jesus, now in glory dwelling,
Far beyond our loving sight,
In the splendor most excelling,
In the great excess of light,–
Where we build for Thee a temple
In earth’s lowly, needy place,
Fill the house with measures ample
Of the Spirit of all grace.
2. Build the house Thyself, O Saviour;
House of Mercy let it be,
Where the lost shall find Thy favor,
And the weary rest in Thee.
Wide its doors of pardon setting,
Bid the heavy-laden come,
All their sin and care forgetting
In the new-found place of home.
3. Here give life for death, revealing
All Thy dying love again.
Teach new power of service, sealing
To Thy work devoted men.
Make this humble house most glorious
With Thy presence from above,
Fill it with Thy power victorious,
Lord of light, of peace, and love!
Above: World Map, 1570
Image in the Public Domain
Hymn Source = Missionary Hymns (1906), Baptist General Convention for Foreign Missions, a forerunner of the Northern Baptist Convention (1907-1950)/American Baptist Convention (1950-1972)/American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. (1972-present)
Text by Mary Cornelia Bishop Gates (1842-1905), who served for many years on the Women’s Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church in America
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1. Rise on the shadowed nations,
O Sun of Righteousness!
With heavenly revelations,
The sin-worn peoples bless!
Break with Thy radiant splendor,
O glory of our God,
With light divine and tender,
O’er every land abroad.
2. O Christ, our sky is lighted
With beams that fall from Thee;
Rise Thou on souls benighted,
Thy light let all men see.
Stay not for heathen blindness,
Stay not for unbelief!
Come, in Thy love and kindness,
And bring the world relief.
3. Send heralds swift before Thee,
Men who have seen the King;
Those who will show Thy glory,
And joyous tidings bring.
The church, Thy love confessing,
Be filled with holy zeal,
To speak the words of blessing,
To seek, to save, the heal!
4. Let her, in faith victorious,
Subdue earth’s sin and pain;
Prepare the way all glorious
For Thy most blessed reign.
Desire of every nation,
Come in Thy love and might;
Bring in the great salvation,
The world-wide reign of light.
Above: Landscape with the Parable of the Sower, by Pieter Brueghel the Elder
Image in the Public Domain
Hymn Source = The Presbyterian Book of Praise (1915), Presbyterian Church in Canada, via hymnary.org
Text by Robert Murray (1832-1915)
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1. Sow the seed beside all waters,
North and south and east and west,
That our toiling sons and daughters
In the harvest may be blest.
Tell the tidings of salvation
‘Mid the storms of Labrador;
Speak the word of consolation
By the lone Pacific shore.
2. Where the forests old are falling,
Yielding place to lawn and lea;
Where the fisher plies his calling
‘Mid the perils of the sea;
Where the tide of commerce rushes
Through the city’s crowded street,
And unpitying mammon crushes
Poor and weak beneath his feet.
3. Where our brothers, sowing, reaping,
Delving for the hidden ore,
Now with joy and now with weeping,
Labor to increase their store;
Where the stranger wanders lonely
In the homeless wilderness,
Tell of Jesus, Jesus only,
Who alone can save and bless.
4. Tell how tenderly He careth
For the weary and oppressed,
How their burdens all He beareth,
As He leads them to His rest;
Tell that He, the Lord from heaven,
Died for all and lives again,
All through Him may be forgiven,
All with Him in glory reign.
5. Tell His love beyond all telling,
Seeking, following those who flee,
Love rebellious hearts compelling
To His service glad and free.
Thus a precious harvest gather,
North and south and east and west,
To the glory of the Father,
Son and Spirit ever blest.
Above: The Flag of Canada, 1868-1921
Image in the Public Domain
Hymn Source = Hymnal of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (1880)
Text by Robert Murray (1832-1910)
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1. Thou, Lord, art our life and the length of our days:
Our voices to Thee in thanksgiving we raise;
Our shield and our buckler, our refuge and tower,
We trust in Thy faithfulness, mercy, and power.
2. We thank Thee, we praise Thee, for sunshine and rain,
For calm and for tempest, for pleasure and pain;
Thy love and Thy wisdom our tongues shall employ,
In light and in darkness, in sorrow and joy.
3. The summer and autumn, the winter and spring,
To Thee shall their tribute of gratitude bring;
The sea and its fullness, the earth and the air,
And tell of Thy goodness, Thy glory declare.
4. We thank Thee, we praise Thee, for beauty and youth,
For justice and freedom, for honour and truth;
For the wealth of the ocean, the forest and field,
And all the rewards that our industries yield.
5. We thank Thee, we praise Thee, for plenty and peace,
For Thy full-flowing bounty that never doth cease,
For the Church and the Sabbath, the Home and the School,
For a land in which mercy and righteousness rule.
6. We thank Thee and praise Thee, our Father above,
For all the dear tokens of kindness and love
Thou sendest to greet us, as day follows day,
To lighten our burdens and gladden our way.
7. We thank Thee for life with its blessings so free,
And for the glad hope which we have, Lord, in Thee,
That Thou wilt receive us in peace to Thy rest,
To serve Thee on high with the saved and the blest.
Above: St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church, Marietta, Georgia, May 17, 2015
Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta
Hymn Source = Hymnal of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (1880)
Text by Robert Murray (1832-1910)
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1. Jesus, Lord, we humbly pray,
Take our gifts on this Thy day:
Gladly, gratefully, we give,
Of Thy grace do Thou receive:
With our store we worship Thee,
As we seek Thy favour free.
2. In the hollow of Thy hand
Is the wealth of sea and land;
All Thou grantest us to own
Appertains to Thee alone;
Claim, then claim, our earthly store
And ourselves for evermore!
3. In our wealth and poverty
With glad hearts we bow to Thee;
Thine we are in life, in death;
Thine from birth to latest breath;
Ransomed children, we shall be
Thine to all eternity.
4. Though our gifts be poor and small,
Thou dost welcome one and all;
Widow’s mite or water cup,
To our Lord when lifted up,
Is as precious in Thine eyes
As the costliest sacrifice.
5. Jesus, we our vows will pay
In Thy house on this Thy day;
And Thy service be our joy,
And Thy work our hands employ
Till we hear the sweet “Well done”
From Thy Glorious Judgment Throne.
Above: St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church, Marietta, Georgia, May 17, 2015
Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta
Hymn Source = Hymnal of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (1880)
Text by Robert Murray (1832-1910)
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1. Our blessed bond of union,
Thou art, O Christ, our Lord!
The rule of our communion
Is thine own faithful word.
Thou art our Elder Brother,
Who, to redeem us, died;
To Thee, and to none other,
Our souls do we confide.
2. Thy peace in us abounding,
Thy presence ever sure,
Thy light our path surrounding,
Thy strength to us secure.
Beneath Thy banner glorious,
Clad in Thy armour true,
We shall march on victorious,
And all our foes subdue.
3. Saviour, most true and gracious,
Thy Spirit now impart,
And let Thy love most precious
Possess and fill each heart.
We grasp Thy promise given,
We set before our eyes
One faith, one hope, one heaven,
One battle and one prize.
Above: The Union Jack
Image in the Public Domain
Sir Robert Grant (1780-1838) was a Member of Parliament who supported progressive causes, such as Jewish emancipation.
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O Worship the King, All-Glorious Above:
https://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2015/05/30/o-worship-the-king-all-glorious-above/
Saviour, When In Dust to Thee:
https://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/saviour-when-in-dust-to-thee/
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Above: Christ in Majesty, Chartres Cathedral
Image in the Public Domain
Hymn Source = Trinity Hymnal (1961), Orthodox Presbyterian Church
Text (1833) by Robert Grant (1780-1838)
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1. O Worship the King, all-glorious above,
O gratefully sing his pow’r and his love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of days,
Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.
2. O tell of his might, O sing of his grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space.
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is his path on the winds of the storm.
3. The earth with its store of wonders untold,
Almighty, thy pow’r hath founded of old;
Hath stablished it fast by a changeless decree,
And round it hath cast, like a mantle, the sea.
4. Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air; it shines in the light;
It streams from the hills; it descends to the plain;
And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.
5. Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail;
Thy mercies, how tender, how firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend!
6. O measureless Might! Ineffable Love!
While angels delight to hymn thee above,
The humbler creation, though feeble their rays,
With true adoration shall lisp to thy praise!
GATHERED PRAYERS 
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