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LORD, HER WATCH THY CHURCH IS KEEPING

Scripture Verse

This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. Matthew 24:14

Introduction

portrait
Wolfgang Mozart
(1756–1791)

Words: Hen­ry Down­ton, 1866. Down­ton wrote this hymn in Ge­ne­va, Swit­zer­land, where he was Re­si­dent Eng­lish Chap­lain. It was first sung at that year’s an­nu­al meet­ing of the Church Miss­ion­ary So­ci­ety.

Music: Ell­es­die Wolf­gang A. Moz­art (1756–1791). Ar­ranged by Hu­bert P. Main, 1872 (🔊 ).

Alternate Tunes:

  • Everton Hen­ry T. Smart, 1867 (🔊 )
  • Salvator (Jew­son) James P. Jew­son, in The Pri­mi­tive Me­tho­dist Hym­nal Sup­ple­ment with Tunes, ed­it­ed by George Booth (Lon­don: Pri­mi­tive Me­tho­dist Pub­lish­ing House, 1912), num­ber 60 (🔊 )

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Down­ton (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els), would you send us an e-mail?

Lyrics

Lord, her watch Thy Church is keep­ing:
When shall earth Thy rule ob­ey?
When shall end the night of weep­ing?
When shall break the pro­mised day?
See the whit­en­ing har­vest lang­uish,
Waiting still the la­bor­ers’ toil;
Was it vain, Thy Son’s deep ang­uish?
Shall the strong re­tain the spoil?

Tidings, sent to ev­ery crea­ture,
Millions yet have nev­er heard:
Can they hear without a preach­er?
Lord al­migh­ty, give the word!
Give the word! in ev­ery na­tion
Let the Gos­pel trum­pet sound,
Witnessing a world’s sal­va­tion,
To the earth’s re­mot­est bound.

Then the end! Thy Church com­plet­ed,
All Thy chos­en ga­thered in,
With their King in glo­ry seat­ed,
Satan bound, and ban­ished sin
Gone for ev­er part­ing, weep­ing,
Hunger, sor­row, death, and pain;
Lo! her watch Thy Church is keep­ing;
Come, Lord Je­sus, come to reign!