Communion of Saints
The Church's One Foundation
- Words:
- Samuel John Stone, 1866. Music: 'Aurelia' Samuel Sebastian Wesley, 1864.
- Setting:
- "Order of worship for the Reformed Church in the United States", 1866.
- Metre:
- 7 6 7 6 7 6 7 6
- 1The Church's one foundationIs Jesus Christ her Lord,She is His new creationBy water and the Word.From heav'n He came and sought herTo be His holy bride;With His own blood He bought herAnd for her life He died.
- 2She is 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.
- 3The Church shall never perish!Her dear Lord to defend,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 traitorShe ever shall prevail.
- 4Though with a scornful wonderMen see her sore oppressed,By schisms rent asunder,By heresies distressed:Yet saints their watch are keeping,Their cry goes up, 'How long?'And soon the night of weepingShall be the morn of song!
- 5'Mid toil and tribulation,And tumult of her war,She waits the consummationOf peace forevermore;Till, with the vision glorious,Her longing eyes are blest,And the great Church victoriousShall be the Church at rest.
- 6Yet she on earth hath unionWith God the Three in One,And mystic sweet communionWith those whose rest is won,With all her sons and daughtersWho, by the Master's handLed through the deathly waters,Repose in Eden land.
- 7O happy ones and holy!Lord, give us grace that weLike them, the meek and lowly,On high may dwell with Thee:There, past the border mountains,Where in sweet vales the BrideWith Thee by living fountainsForever shall abide!
More sheet music
Scripture
Topics
In the hymnals
- Written in 1866, the words are in 976 hymnals indexed by Hymnary.org. Their history →
- The tune, Aurelia, is in 1,295 hymnals. The tune →
Words, music and setting are in the public domain. The score is from the Open Hymnal Project (Brian J. Dumont), which places its own work in the public domain. Further sheet music is from PDHymns.com. The piano is the FluidR3 General MIDI sound font (MIT licence). How many hymnals print a hymn, and when it was written, is from Hymnary.org.