THE CHURCH'S ONE FOUNDATION

 A HYMN FOR THE 18TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

By Samuel John Stone 1866

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.

 

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.

 

’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.

 

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.