Archive for the ‘Church Militant/Kingdom of God 1900s’ Category

Above: Icon of PIetà
Image in the Public Domain
Text by George Thomas Coster (1835-1912); written for The Fellowship Hymnbook, National Council of Adult School Unions (founded in 1899)
Hymn Source = The Church Hymnary–Revised Edition (1927)
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O God our Father, throned on high,
Enrobed in ageless splenour,
To Thee, in awe and love and joy,
Ourselves we would surrender–
To live obedient to Thy will
As servants to each other,
And show our faithfulness to Thee
By love to one another.
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To serve by love! O teach us how;
Be this our great vocation–
To comfort grief, to seek the lost
With message of salvation;
In loving may our full hearts beat,
Our words be wise and winning;
In helping others may our joy
Have ever new beginning.
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Thee, Lord, for Thy dear Son we bless;
His heart for us was broken;
O love! upon the bitter Cross
Thy deepest word was spoken;
The echo of that word is heard
In love for every brother;
So test we, Lord, our love for Thee,
By loving one another.
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Above: Ursa Major
Image in the Public Domain
Text by Albert H. Bayly (1901-1984)
Text Source = The Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada (1971)
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O Lord of every shining constellation
that wheels in splendour through the midnight sky:
grant us thy Spirit’s true illumination
to read the secrets of thy work on high.
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And thou who mad’st the atom’s hidden forces,
whose laws its mighty energies fulfil:
teach us, to whom thou giv’st such rich resources,
in all we use, to serve thy holy will.
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O Life, awaking life in cell and tissue,
from flower to bud, from beast to brain of man:
O help us trace, from birth to final issue,
the sure unfolding of thine ageless plan.
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Thou who hast stamped thine image on thy creatures,
and though they marred that image, lov’st them still:
uplift our eyes to Christ, that in his features
we may discern the beauty of thy will.
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Great Lord of nature, shaping and renewing,
who mad’st us more than nature’s sons to be:
help us to tread, thy grace our souls enduing,
the road to life and immortality.

Above: An Offering Plate
Image Source = ForestWander
Text by Albert F. Bayly (1901-1984)
Hymn Source = The Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada (1971)
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Lord of all good, our gifts we bring to thee,
use them thy holy purpose to fulfil,
tokens of love and pledges they shall be
that our whole life is offered to thy will.
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We give our mind to understand thy ways,
hands, eyes, and voice to serve thy great design;
heart with the flame of thine own love ablaze,
till for thy glory all our powers combine.
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Father, whose bounty all creation shows,
Christ, by whose willing sacrifice we live,
Spirit, from whom all life in fullness flows,
to thee with grateful hearts ourselves we give.

Above: Icon of St. Luke
Image in the Public Domain
Text (1905) by Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley (1851-1920)
Hymn Source = The English Hymnal (1906), The Church of England
A hymn for the Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist (October 18)
I detect a theme of medical missions, one of Rawnsley’s favorite causes.
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Saviour, who didst healing give,
Still in power go before us;
Thou through death didst bid men live,
Unto fuller life restore us;
Strengthen from thee the fainting found,
Deaf men heard, the blind went seeing;
At thy touch was banished sickness,
And the leper felt new being.
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Thou didst work thy deeds of old
Through the loving hands of others;
Still thy mercies manifold
Bless men by thy hands of brothers;
Angels still before thy face
Go, sweet health to brothers bringing;
Still, hearts glow to tell his praises
With whose name the Church is ringing.
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Loved physician! for his word
Lo, the Gospel page burns brighter,
Mission servant of the Lord,
Painter true, and perfect writer;
Saviour, of thy bounty send
Such as Luke of Gospel story,
Friends to all in body’s prison
Till the sufferers see thy glory.
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Above: World Map, 1898
Image in the Public Domain
Text (published in 1922) by Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley (1851-1920)
Hymn Source = The Methodist Hymnal (1935), the Methodist Episcopal Church; the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; and the Methodist Protestant Church
A hymn about medical missions
The Methodist Hymnal (1935) is the only hymnal in my collection to have (1) all five stanzas and (2) the unaltered text of this hymn.
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Father, whose will is life and good
For all of mortal breath
Bind strong the bond of brotherhood
Of those who fight with death.
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Empower the hands and hearts and wills
Of friends in lands afar,
Who battle with the body’s ills,
And wage Thy holy war.
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Where’er they heal the maimed and blind,
Let love of Christ attend:
Proclaim the good Physician’s mind,
And prove the Saviour friend.
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For still His love works wondrous charms,
And, as in days of old,
He takes the wounded to His arms,
And bears them to the fold.
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O Father, look from Heaven and bless
Wheree’er Thy servants be,
Their works of pure unselfishness,
Made consecrate to Thee!
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Above: A World Map from 1570
Image in the Public Domain
Text (1928) by Frank Mason North (1850-1935)
Hymn Source = The Methodist Hymnal (1935), Methodist Episcopal Church; Methodist Episcopal Church, South; and Methodist Protestant Church
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O Master of the waking world,
Who hast the nations in Thy heart–
The heart that bled and broke to send
God’s love to earth’s remotest part:
Show us anew in Calvary
The wondrous power that makes men free.
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On every side the walls are down,
The gates swing wide to every land,
The restless tribes and races feel
The pressure of Thy pierced hand;
The way is in the sea and air,
Thy world is open everywhere.
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We hear the throb of surging life,
The clank of chains, the curse of greed,
The moan of pain, the futile cries
Of superstition’s cruel creed;
The peoples hunger for Thee, Lord,
The isles are waiting for Thy word.
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Thy witness in the souls of men,
Thy Spirit’s ceaseless, brooding power,
In lands where shadows hide the light,
Await a new creative hour:
O mighty God, set us aflame
To show the glory of Thy Name.

Above: Riverside Church and Grant’s Tomb, New York, New York
Image in the Public Domain
Hymn (1930) by Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969), for the opening of the Riverside Church, New York, New York, in 1930
Hymn Sources = The Hymnal (1941), Evangelical and Reformed Church; Hymnal and Liturgies of the Moravian Church (1969), Moravian Church in America
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God of grace and God of glory,
On Thy people pour Thy power;
Crown Thine ancient church’s story;
Bring her bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, Grant us courage,
For the facing of this hour,
For the facing of this hour.
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Lo! the hosts of evil round us
Scorn Thy Christ, assail his ways!
From the fears that long have bound us
Free our hearts to faith and praise:
Grant us wisdom, Grant us courage,
For the living of these days,
For the living of these days.
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Cure Thy children’s warring madness,
Bend our pride to Thy control;
Shame our wanton, selfish gladness,
Rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, Grant us courage,
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal,
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal.
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Set our feet on lofty places;
Gird our lives that they may be
Armored with all Christlike graces
In the fight to set men free.
Grant us wisdom, Grant us courage,
That we fail not man nor Thee!
That we fail not man nor Thee!
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Save us from weak resignation
To the evils we deplore;
Let the search for Thy salvation
Be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom, Grant us courage
Serving Thee Whom we adore,
Serving Thee Whom we adore.

Above: Apotheosis of War, by Vasily Vereshchagin
Image in the Public Domain
Hymn Source = The Hymnbook of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada (1971)
Text (1937, 1939) by Robert Balgarnie Young (R. B. Y.) Scott (1899-1987)
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O day of God, draw nigh
in beauty and in power;
come with thy timeless judgement
now to match our present hour.
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Bring to our troubled minds,
uncertain and afraid,
the quiet of a steadfast faith,
calm of a call obeyed.
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Bring justice to our land,
that all may dwell secure,
and finely build for days to come
foundations that endure.
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Bring to our world of strife
thy sovereign word of peace,
that war may haunt the earth no more
and desolation cease.
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O day of God, draw nigh,
as at creation’s birth;
let there be light again, and set
thy judgements in the earth.
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Above: The Departure of the Israelites from Egypt, By David Roberts
Image in the Public Domain
Text (1913) by Walter Russell Bowie (1882-1969)
Hymn Source = American Hymns Old and New (1980)
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God of the nations, who, from dawn of days
Hast led thy people in their widening ways,
Through whose deep purpose stranger thousands stand
Here in the borders of our promised land.
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Thine ancient might rebuked the Pharaoh’s boast,
Thou wast the the shield for Israel’s marching host,
And all the ages through, past crumbling throne
And broken fetter, thou has brought thine own.
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Thy hand has led across the angry sea
The eager peoples flocking to be free,
And from the breeds of earth, thy silent sway
Fashions the nations of the broadening day.
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Then, for thy grace to grow in brotherhood,
For hearts aflame to serve thy destined good,
For faith and will to win what faith shall see,
God of thy people, hear us cry to thee.

Above: The New Jerusalem and the River of Life
Image in the Public Domain
Text (1910) by Walter Russell Bowie (1882-1969), for Hymns for the Kingdom of God (1910), edited by Henry Sloane Coffin (1877-1954)
Hymn Source = American Hymns Old and New (1980)
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O Holy City seen of John,
Where Christ the Lamb doth reign,
Within whose foursquare walls shall come
No night, nor need, nor pain,
And where the tears are wiped from eyes
That shall not weep again.
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Hark, how from men whose lives are held
More cheap than merchandise,
From women struggling sore for bread,
From little children’s cries,
There swells the sobbing human plaint
That bids thy walls arise.
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O shame to us who rest content
While lust and greed for gain
In street and shop and tenement
Wring gold from human pain,
And bitter lips in blind despair
Cry, “Christ hath died in vain!”
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Give us, O God, the strength to build
The City that hath stood
Too long a dread, whose laws are love,
Whose ways are brotherhood,
And where the sun that shineth is
God’s grace for human good.
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