Whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
Matthew 7:24–25
Words: Herbert J. Bryce, in Songs of the Great Salvation, by William M. Runyan & Daniel Towner (Wichita, Kansas: Runyan Music, circa 1919), number 16.
Music: Daniel B. Towner, 1918 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good photo of Bryce (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
Are you building your house
On the rock or the sand,
Are you living for time
Or the ages to be?
Do you know that your structure,
Though shaken, will stand,
Unharmed by the tempests
Which sweep o’er the sea?
Refrain
Let rains descend and tempests sweep;
Let floods arise and billows leap;
My house will stand ’neath every shock,
For I have built upon the Rock.
O the Lord is the Rock;
Our foundation is tried,
And is changeless today
As in centuries flown,
Though by men once rejected,
He still doth abide,
He’s the blest Rock of Ages,
The great Living Stone.
Refrain
Though the billows may beat
And the hurricane blow,
I am fearless and calm
In the face of the gale;
For the Word of Jehovah
Is sure, and I know,
Having built on my Savior,
They cannot prevail.
Refrain