Scripture Verse

I will make thy name remembered. Psalm 45:17

Introduction

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Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)

Words: Ho­ra­ti­us Bo­nar, 1857, alt. in Gos­pel Hymns Nos. 1 to 6 Com­plete, ed­it­ed by Ira San­key, James Mc­Gra­na­han & George C. Steb­bins (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois & Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Big­low & Main and John Church, 1894), num­ber 534. An ear­li­er ver­sion, with mu­sic by Phil­ip Bliss, is in The Prize, by George F. Root (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Root & Ca­dy, 1870), pag­es 126–27. Al­so see What I Have Done.

Music: Ira D. San­key, 1891 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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Ira D. Sankey (1840–1908)

Origin of the Hymn

Dr. Ho­ra­ti­us Bo­nar, of Ed­in­burgh, wrote the words of this hymn, which I set to mu­sic in 1891. I sang it as a so­lo in the Tab­er­na­cle in Lon­don at the fun­er­al of my friend, C. H. Spur­geon, the great Lon­don preach­er.

Sankey, pp. 334–35

Lyrics

Fading away like the stars of the morn­ing,
Losing their light in the glo­ri­ous sun—
Thus would we pass from the earth and its toil­ing,
Only re­mem­bered by what we have done.

Refrain

Only re­mem­bered, on­ly re­mem­bered,
Only re­mem­bered by what we have done;
Thus would we pass from the earth and its toil­ing,
Only re­mem­bered by what we have done.

Shall we be missed though by oth­ers suc­ceed­ed,
Reaping the fields we in spring­time have sown?
No, for the sow­ers may pass from their la­bors,
Only re­mem­bered by what they have done.

Refrain

Only the truth that in life we have spok­en,
Only the seed that on earth we have sown;
These shall pass on­ward when we are for­got­ten,
Fruits of the har­vest and what we have done.

Refrain