Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.
By Hymns. I. “The Church’s one Foundation”Samuel John Stone (1839–1900)
T
Is J
She is His new creation
By water and the Word;
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy Bride,
With His own Blood He bought her,
And for her life He died.
Yet one o’er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation
One L
One Holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one Holy Food,
And to one Hope she presses,
With every grace endued.
Her dear L
To guide, sustain, and cherish,
Is with her to the end:
Though there be those who hate her,
And false sons in her pale,
Against or foe or traitor
She ever shall prevail.
Men see her sore opprest,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distrest;
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song.
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace for evermore;
Till with the vision glorious
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.
With F
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won:
With all her sons and daughters,
Who, by the Master’s Hand
Led through the deathly waters,
Repose in Eden-Land.
L
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with Thee!
There past the border mountains,
Where in sweet vales the Bride
With Thee by living fountains
For ever shall abide.