Funeral of an Aged Minister

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Servant of God, well done, Rest from thy loved employ

Author: James Montgomery
Published in 195 hymnals

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Piano/Organ
	Ten Chorale Improvisations, Set 5

Representative Text

1 "Servant of God, well done!
Rest from thy loved employ;
The battle fought, the victory won,
Enter thy master’s joy."

2 The voice at midnight came,
He started up to hear;
A mortal arrow pierced his frame;
He fell, but felt no fear.

3 His sword was in his hand,
Still warm with recent fight,
Ready that moment, at command,
Through rock and steel to smite.

4 Bent on such glorious toils,
The world to him was loss,
Yet all his trophies, all his spoils,
He hung upon the cross.

5 At midnight came the cry,
"To meet thy God prepare!"
He woke and caught his Captain's eye,
Then strong in faith and prayer.

6 His spirit with a bound,
Left its encumbering clay;
His tent at sunrise on the ground,
A darkened ruin lay.

7 The pains of death are past,
Labor and sorrow cease;
And life’s long warfare closed at last,
His soul is found in peace.

8 Soldier of Christ, well done!
Praise be thy new employ;
And while eternal ages run
Rest in thy Savior’s joy.

Source: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal #470

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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 >

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First Line:	Servant of God, well done, Rest from thy loved employ
Title:	Funeral of an Aged Minister
Author:	James Montgomery
Meter:	6.6.8.6
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Servant of God, well done! Thy glorious warfare's past. C. Wesley. [Death and Burial of a Minister.] This hymn, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines, was printed at the end of the Funeral Sermon by John Wesley, on the death of G. Whitefield. (Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. vi. 316.) Whitefield died on Sept. 30, 1770, and J. Wesley preached the Funeral Sermon at the Tabernacle, Tottenham Court Road, and again at Moorfields on Nov. 18, 1770. He also preached on the same subject at Greenwich and at Deptford. His remark in his Journal is, “In every place I wish to show all possible respect to the memory of that great and good man." It must be noted that this hymn is a distinct piece from C. Wesley's Elegy on the Death of the Rev. George Whitefield.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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