THE CHURCH'S ONE FOUNDATION

A HYMN FOR MISSION SUNDAY

1	The Church’s one foundation   Is Jesus Christ her Lord; She is His new creation   By water and the Word: From heav’n He came and sought her   To be His holy Bride; With His own blood He bought her,   And for her life He died.
2	Elect from every nation,   Yet one o’er all the earth, Her charter of salvation,   One Lord, one faith, one birth; One holy Name she blesses,   Partakes one holy food, And to one hope she presses,   With every grace endued.
3	’Mid toil and tribulation,   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.
4	Yet she on earth hath union   With God the Three in One, And mystic sweet communion   With those whose rest is won: O happy ones and holy!   Lord, give us grace that we, Like them, the meek and lowly,   In love may dwell with Thee. By S.J. Stone (1866)