Scripture Verse

To love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Mark 12:33

Introduction

portrait
Julia H. Johnston (1849–1919)

Words: Ju­lia H. John­ston, in Bi­ble Stu­dy Songs, by Ber­tha F. Vel­la & Da­ni­el Tow­ner (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Pil­grim Press, 1899), page 65.

Music: Co­lo­ma Da­ni­el B. Tow­ner (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a bet­ter pho­to of John­ston,

portrait
Daniel Towner (1850–1919)

Lyrics

Oh, what shall we bring to the Sav­ior,
The ris­en and glo­ri­ous King,
As now, on this day of re­joic­ing,
His migh­ty re­demp­tion we sing?
A pur­pose un­fal­ter­ing and ear­nest,
A love that is ar­dent and pure,
And prais­es the glad­dest and sweet­est,
Are gifts that may ev­er en­dure.

We bring the heart’s tru­est de­vo­tion,
We con­se­crate all that we own;
Our ser­vice so rea­dy and loy­al,
We pledge to our mas­ter alone.
The gold and the sil­ver He gives us,
The poor and ne­glect­ed shall share;
And here, in the tem­ple of wor­ship,
We of­fer the in­cense of pray­er.

The fruits of de­vout self de­ni­al,
We bring to the Lord on this day,
With hearts that are trust­ful and lov­ing,
And bear His rich bless­ing away.
We’ll tell to the pri­son­ers of sor­row,
With sym­pa­thy fer­vent and deep,
That Je­sus, the ris­en Re­deem­er,
His pro­mise for­ev­er will keep.