Scripture Verse

Give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof. Ezra 9:9

Introduction

Words: From the 11th Cen­tu­ry Mo­za­ra­bic Hym­na­ri­um in the Brit­ish Mu­se­um (O be­ata Hie­ru­sa­lem, prae­di­can­da ci­vi­tas). Trans­lat­ed from La­tin to Eng­lish by John El­ler­ton in Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern, 1889.

Music: Blag­don Charles E. Ste­phens, in Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern, 1889 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Ste­phens (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
John Ellerton (1826–1893)

Lyrics

O Je­ru­sa­lem the bliss­ful,
Home of glad­ness yet untold,
Thou whose count­less throngs tri­um­phal
Fill with joy thy street of gold
Graven on thee, new and glo­ri­ous,
They the King’s own name be­hold!

Many are thy sons, O mo­ther,
Yon au­gust and shin­ing band!
Gentle peace in all thy bor­ders
Makes thee glad, O hap­py land!
Perfect is thy res­to­ra­tion,
Bright in ho­li­ness to stand.

Here, a fig­ure of the hea­ven­ly,
Shines our tem­ple, wor­thi­er grown
By its rich­er res­to­ra­tion
On the old foun­da­tion stone.
With a ma­jes­ty and beau­ty
To the for­mer house un­known.

Lord, we pray Thee, Mas­ter Build­er,
Great and ho­ly, en­ter in,
Fill Thy sanc­tu­ary quick­ly,
As our hal­low­ing rites be­gin,
And Thy­self its con­se­cra­tor
Rest for ev­er­more there­in.

Make Thy serv­ants, though un­wor­thy,
Temples of Thy grace to be;
Let us not in flesh or spir­it
Prove dis­loy­al un­to Thee,
But in de­di­cat­ed ser­vice
Praise Thy name ador­ing­ly.

Make, O ro­yal Priest, Thine al­tar
Here hence­forth a throne of light,
Ever held in high­est hon­or,
And with ma­ny a gift made bright,
Ever bless­èd, ev­er peace­ful,
Ever pre­cious in Thy sight.

Yea, our hearts, for these Thou judg­est
As Thy cleans­èd al­tars bless,
By Thy Spir­it’s grace re­new us
Unto per­fect ho­li­ness,
And the sev­en­fold gifts from Hea­ven
Grant us ev­er to pos­sess.

Now to Thee, through end­less ages,
O most ho­ly Tri­ni­ty,
Highest hon­or, pow­er un­mea­sured,
Everlasting glo­ry be;
God for ev­er and for ev­er,
Three in One, and One in Three.