How blest are hearts, which Christ the Lord
Has joined, as with a sil­ver cord,
In spous­al uni­ty;
And an­im­at­ed are with love,
And in­spi­ra­tions from above,
O Ho­ly Ghost, by Thee!

When an­gels sang cre­at­ion’s birth,
Man, fash­ioned from the dust of earth,
In Ed­en was alone;
But God made Eve from Ad­am’s side,
And brought her to him as a bride,
And willed them to be one.

O ho­ly wed­lock, ra­ti­fied
In Heav’n; a knot for ev­er tied
By God in pa­ra­dise;
O hap­pi­ness be­yond com­pare,
What tongues of an­gels to de­clare
Thy bless­ed­ness suf­fice?

Anthems an­ge­li­cal were heard,
When Christ, the ev­er­last­ing Word,
To wed His spouse did come,
And take His con­se­crat­ed bride,
Cleansed by the life-blood from His side,
Unto His heav’n­ly home.

At Ca­na’s feast, that heav’n­ly Guest
Did first His God­head ma­ni­fest,
And wa­ter change to wine;
In wed­lock, tears of sor­row­ing earth
Are changed to wine of heav’n­ly mirth,
By pow­er and love di­vine.

Mirrored in nup­ti­al pu­ri­ty
The mar­riage of the Church we see,
And Christ the Bride­groom’s love;
Angels look down, and an­thems sing,
The ho­ly Dove, with gold­en wing,
Sheds bless­ings from above.

Bless, ev­er bless, Thy ser­vants, Lord,
Whom Thou dost join in sweet ac­cord.
The bride­groom and the bride;
In sor­row, sick­ness, and in health,
In tri­bu­la­tion and in wealth,
Be Thou their help and guide.

Be with them, Lord, as day by day
They with one heart to­ge­ther pray,
Thy Word to­ge­ther read,
Together at Thine al­tar kneel,
And with Thy blood their un­ion seal,
On Thee to­ge­ther feed.

May they for ever have Thee near,
Making them to Thy­self more dear,
And each to each in Thee;
So, when from earth­ly cares re­leased,
May they at Thine own mar­riage feast
Be blest eter­nal­ly.

To Fa­ther, whose pa­ter­nal love
Sends benedictions from above,
Eternal prais­es be;
And God the Son, in­car­nate Word,
With Holy Spir­it, be adored;
One God and Per­sons Three.