Scripture Verse

Behold, the Bridegroom! Come out to meet Him! Matthew 25:6

Introduction

Words: Hen­ry E. Fox, 1899. The words were writ­ten for the cen­ten­ary of the Church Mis­sion­ary So­ci­ety.

Music: La­gos (Bell­er­by) Ed­ward J. Bell­er­by (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

portrait
Henry E. Fox (1841–1926)

Lyrics

O King of Glo­ry, God of Grace,
Age af­ter age is tell­ing
Thy mer­cy to a fall­en race;
The Lord with man­kind dwell­ing
Thou didst of old send forth Thy Word,
Pardon and peace re­veal­ing;
From slum­ber waked, our fa­thers heard,
And sought the na­tion’s heal­ing.

To ev­ery land the Word has gone,
Christ comes, go forth to meet Him;
Where dark­ness dwelt the light has shone,
Prepare, O earth, to meet Him.
Break, Af­ric, break thine age-long chains,
Proud Is­lam’s bond­age spurn­ing;
Sing, In­dia, sing o’er all thy plains,
Sorrow to joy is turn­ing.

Land of the ris­ing sun, arise,
Thy bet­ter day is dawn­ing,
From shore to shore the mes­sage flies,
That hails earth’s bright­er morn­ing.
Kinsmen afar re­spon­sive sing,
Pass on the Gos­pel sto­ry;
Sing, com­rade band, Make Je­sus king,
The Lord comes back in glo­ry.