Before Us, Lord, Thy Board is Spread

Above:  St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, Calhoun, Georgia, July 10, 2016

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

Hymn Source = The Christian Ministry:  Its Present Claim and Attraction and Other Writings (1894)

Text (1890) by Theodore Claudius Pease (1853-1893)

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Before us, Lord, Thy board is spread,

Thy love’s unchanging token:

We share the cup, we take the bread,

Thy body bruised and broken:

And at Thy table, met with Thee,

Thy word, “In memory of Me,”

Once more to us is spoken!

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No lengthening years of mist and gloom

Have power to change or bound Thee:

To-day, as in the upper room

Thy first disciples found Thee,

O let Thy Presence still our fears,

Remove our doubts, and dry our tears,

While here we gather round Thee!

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We come, our hearts anew to yield

To Thee for Thy possessing:

We come, with lips but now unsealed,

A new-found love confessing:

Grant us, O Lord, Thy promised grace,

Reveal to each Thy loving Face,

And breathe on all Thy blessing!

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Thou knowest all our varied need,

Our gladness and our grieving:

What joys allure, what hopes mislead,

With false lights still deceiving:

With Thee we leave our troubled past,

With Thee our future, dim and vast,–

All things from Thee receiving.

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While here we hold communion sweet,

The dear, remembered faces

Of friends unseen, again we meet

In their familiar places:

For one with Thee is one with all

Who hear Thy voice and own Thy call,

Throughout the starry spaces!