Strive to enter in at the strait gate.
Luke 13:24
Words: John H. Brammall, written for the Wesleyan Sunday School Union, 1870, and first printed in the Union’s Whitsuntide fly-sheet of that year. In 1879, it was given anonymously in the Methodist Sunday School Hymn Book, number 283.
Music: St. Gertrude Arthur S. Sullivan, 1871 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good photo of Brammall (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
Onward, children, onward!
Leave the paths of sin;
Hasten to the strait gate,
Strive to enter in;
None can knock unheeded,
None can strive in vain,
For the Savior’s welcome
All that seek obtain.
Refrain
Onward, children, onward!
Is the call today;
Come with ready footsteps,
And that call obey.
Onward, children, onward!
In the narrow way.
Christ your Lord shall lead you
Safely day by day;
And with such a leader
What have you to fear?
Satan may oppose you,
But your king is near.
Refrain
Onward, ever onward!
Till you join the throng
Who in dazzling raiment
Sing the triumph song,
And to heav’nly music
Cry with one accord,
Holy! Holy! Holy!
Is our sovereign Lord.
Refrain