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Category: belles-lettres

Hymn of the Week – Jesus Is Mine

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Borrowing a blogging tradition from The Common Room (arguably my mother’s favorite blog), I am going to begin posting the words to a selected hymn every Lord’s day.  The first in this series will be “Jesus Is Mine,” which I sang with the Pinson congregation this morning.  I was really moved by the lyrics (especially the third verse), and I hope you will be too.

Poetry by Jane Bonar (1845)
Music by Theodore Perkins (1858)

Fade, fade, each earthly joy, Jesus is mine!
Break every tender tie, Jesus is mine!
Dark is the wilderness, Earth has no resting place,
Jesus alone can bless, Jesus is mine!

Tempt not my soul away, Jesus is mine!
Here would I ever stay, Jesus is mine!
Perishing things of clay, born but for one brief day,
Pass from my heart away, Jesus is mine!

Farewell, ye dreams of night, Jesus is mine!
Lost in this dawning light, Jesus is mine!
All that my soul has tried left but a dismal void;
Jesus has satisfied, Jesus is mine!

Farewell, mortality, Jesus is mine!
Welcome, eternity, Jesus is mine!
Welcome, oh, loved and blest, welcome sweet scenes of rest,
Welcome, my Savior’s breast, Jesus is mine!

(Accessed at the Cyberhymnal)

Verses Upon the Immersion of a Penitent Sinner

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Praise to the Father, and praise to the Son!
What wonderful things we behold!
A wandering soul has returned to its God,
Deciding to leave that great path which is broad:
See the new life that’s begun!

No longer to wander in darkness and sin,
You know that this Jesus is Christ.
Your physical body is buried and raised,
The spiritual body is left in the grave,
A new one is now lifted up.

Joy now pervades me; it seems I can hear
The rejoicing of heavenly ones.
What wondrous salvation our Jesus provides!
He’ll keep you in safety from terrible tides;
He’s faithful if you will stay near.

I’m praying for you as you live this new life;
I know you will struggle and fight.
The race is not easy, but Christ helps us through,
As long as you seek Him, He always is new.
Stay close through the trouble and strife!

In happy times, too, you must always keep guard,
Give God all the glory for bliss.
It’s He who has given you strength for the day,
Give Him all the credit, don’t throw it away.
The easy can prove to be hard.

Whatever you do as you walk this new road,
I hope you remember one thing:
Don’t keep to yourself the wonderful news,
Take every chance to tell others these truths!
The Lord will increase what you sowed.

God only knows if I’ll see you again;
Most likely I won’t in this life.
But I know for a fact that I’ll see you at home,
In that place where our weary feet never will roam:
Be faithful and true until then!

Enwrapped in Blissful Ignorance

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Or, Thoughts Upon Seeing a Certain Billboard in the Middle of a Cow Pasture

The cattle live a happy life:
A life of bliss, and not of strife.
Their days are full of cud and grass,
And blissfully their moments pass.

Connoisseurs of finest weeds,
They all discern the tasty seeds.
Bereft of sadness, gloom, and grief,
The milk cow eats another leaf.

Thrice happy they, who live in fields,
Who worry not o’er loss and yields.
Oh! such a blissful life is fine—
They’re standing by an Arby’s sign.

Diceus and Pleonectes

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The righteous man considereth the house of the wicked, How the wicked are overthrown to their ruin. (Proverbs 21:12)

One evening a man was walking down the street towards the neighborhood where he lived.  He walked with a steady, but ponderous gait, as one does when he is encompassed with thought and is pressing forward only by the will of his two feet.  As he walked thus, deep in his own contemplations, another man called out to him from a shop on the left side of the dusty street.

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Be Thou My Vision

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Here in Tennessee I have been learning a great many songs that I’ve never heard before, and I would like to share one of them with you.  This particular song is actually Irish, and both the music and the words are very lovely.  I hope to introduce this one to my home congregation someday (providing that it is in our songbooks).  Here are the lyrics:

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.