Anyone who loves their father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
Matthew 10:37
Words: James Montgomery, Sacred Poems and Hymns for Public and Private Devotion (New York: D. Appleton, 1854), pages 57–58.
Music: Adoro Te (Barnby) Joseph Barnby, 1872 (🔊 pdf nwc).
Alternate Tunes:
Home, kindred, friends and country, these
Are things with which we never part;
From clime to clime, o’er land and seas,
We bear them with us in our heart;
And yet ’tis hard to feel resigned
When these, all these, are left behind.
But when the pilgrim’s staff we take,
And follow Christ from shore to shore,
Gladly for Him we all forsake,
Press on, and only look before:
Though humbled nature mourns her loss,
The spirit glories in the Cross.
It is no sin, like man, to weep,
E’en Jesus wept o’er Lazarus, dead;
Or yearn for home beyond the deep,
He had not where to lay His head:
The patriot’s tears will He condemn,
Who wept o’er lost Jerusalem?
Take up your cross, and say, Farewell!
Go forth without the camp to Him,
Who left Heav’n’s throne with men to dwell,
Who died His murderers to redeem:
Oh! tell His name in every ear;
Doubt not—the dead themselves will hear;
Hear, and come forth to life anew,
Then, while the Gentile courts they fill,
Shall not your Savior’s words stand true?
Home, kindred, friends and country still,
In earth’s last desert you shall find,
Yet lose not those you left behind.