All hail! our Church's Elder dear

All hail, thy church's Savior dear

Author: James Montgomery
Tune: WORSHIP (Herrnhut)
Published in 7 hymnals

Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

All hail! our Church's Elder dear,
Jesus, her glorious head!
To Thy disciples now appear,
As risen from the dead;
Let our rejoicing souls in Thee,
The tokens of Thy Passion see,
And hear Thy gentle voice anew,
Say "Peace be unto you."

Remembering what our fathers told,
Thou didst in their young day,
This solemn Jubilee we hold,
That we, as then did they,
Ourselves in covenant may bind,
With soul and strength, and heart and mind,
Through life and death, on land, o'er sea,
Meekly to follow Thee.

288
Revive Thy work amidst the years,
Our brethren still employ,
O'er heathen soils to sow in tears,
With hope to reap in joy:
Though wide the fields, the labourers few,
If Thou our failing faith renew,
The weakest of Thy servants, we
Can all things do through Thee.

Through Thee, from Greenland's sterile rocks,
Rich harvests have been led;
In Indian forests wandering flocks,
With heavenly knowledge fed;
In island-prisons o'er the sea,
Bond-slaves have been made gospel-free;
Midst lion-haunts, on Afric sands,
Strange tribes lift holy hands.

To-day, one world-neglected race,
We fervently commend
To Thee, and to Thy Word of grace;
Lord, visit and befriend
People scatter'd, peel'd, and rude,
By land and ocean-solitude,
Cut off from ev'ry social shore,
In dreary Labrador.

Thither, while to and fro she steers,
Still guide our annual bark1313For particulars of the missionary
ship, and the providence which has preserved her through so many perilous
annual voyages, vide periodical accounts of the Missions of
the United Brethren. ,
289
By night and day, through hopes and fears,
While, lonely as the ark,
Along her single track she braves,
Gulphs, whirlpools, ice-fields, winds, and waves,
To waft glad tidings to the shore
Of longing Labrador.

How welcome to the watching eye,
From morn till evening fix'd,
The first faint speck that shews her nigh,
Where surge and sky are miss'd;
Till looming large, and larger yet,
With bounding prow, and sails full set,
She speeds to anchor on the shore
Of joyful Labrador.

Then hearts with hearts, and souls with souls,
In thrilling transport meet,
Though dark and broad the Atlantic rolls,
Between their parted feet:
For written words, with boundless range,
Thoughts, feelings, prayers, can interchange,
And once a year join Britain's shore
To kindred Labrador.

Then at the vessel's glad return,
The absent meet again;
At home our hearts within us burn,
To trace the cunning pen,
Whose strokes, like rays from star to star,
Bring happy messages from far,
And once a year to Britain's shore
Join Christian Labrador.
290

O Thou, in whom we all are one,
If faithful found and true,
Thy will on earth by each be done,
As each in heaven would do:
To Thee ourselves we first would give,
Live to Thy glory while we live;
From step to step on Thee rely,
Then in Thy service die.

Sacred Poems and Hymns

Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: All hail, thy church's Savior dear
Title: All hail! our Church's Elder dear
Author: James Montgomery
Meter: 8.6.8.6.8.8.8.6
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

All hail! our Church's Elder dear. J. Montgomery. This appeared in his Original Hymns, 1853, No. 273, in three parts, with the beading "For the Centenary Anniversaries of the Brethren's Eldership, and the beginning of the Society for the furtherance of the Gospel in the Moravian Church, November 13 and 19, 1841." It is in 10 stanzas of 8 lines, of which stanzas i.-iii. are given in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1886, as No. 835.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

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Moravian Book of Worship #399

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