The Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
1 Timothy 3:15
Words: Samuel Longfellow, Hymns of the Spirit 1864.
Music: St. James Ralph Courteville, in Select Psalms and Hymns for the Use of the Parish Church and Tabernacle of St. James’, Westminster, 1696 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good picture of Courteville (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
One holy Church of God appears
Through every age and race,
Unwasted by the lapse of years,
Unchanged by changing place.
From oldest time, on farthest shores,
Beneath the pine or palm,
One unseen presence she adores,
With silence, or with psalm.
The truth is her prophetic gift,
The soul her sacred page;
And feet on mercy’s errands swift
Do make her pilgrimage.
O living Church, thine errand speed,
Fulfill thy task sublime;
With bread of life earth’s hungers feed;
Redeem the evil time!