Come sing, ye choirs ex­ult­ant,
Those mes­sen­gers of God,
Through whom the liv­ing Gos­pels
Came sound­ing all abroad!
Whose voice pro­claimed sal­va­tion
That poured up­on the night,
And drove away the sha­dows,
And filled the world with light.

He chose them, our Good Shep­herd,
And, tend­ing ev­er­more,
His flock through earth’s four quar­ters,
In wis­dom made them four;
True Law­giv­er, He bade them
Their heal­ing mes­sage speed—
One char­ter for all na­tions,
One glo­ri­ous ti­tle deed!

In one har­mo­ni­ous wit­ness
The chos­en four com­bine
While each his own com­miss­ion
Fulfills in ev­ery line;
As, in the pro­phet’s vi­sion,
From out the am­ber flame
In form of vis­age di­verse
Four liv­ing crea­tures came.

Lo, these the wing­èd cha­ri­ots,
That bring Em­ma­nu­el nigh,
The gold­en staves, up­lift­ing
God’s ve­ry ark on high;
And these the four­fold ri­ver
Of pa­ra­dise above,
Whence flow for all the na­tions
New mys­te­ries of love.

Foursquare on this foun­da­tion
The Church of Christ re­mains,
A house to stand un­shak­en
By floods or winds or rains.
O glo­ri­ous hap­py por­tion
In this safe home to be,
By God, true man, unit­ed
With God eter­nal­ly.