Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
Matthew 6:19
Words: William P. Merrill, 1911. First published in the Presbyterian newspaper The Continent.
Music: Festal Song William H. Walter, in the Episcopal Hymnal with Tunes Old and New, by John I. Tucker, 1872 (🔊 pdf nwc).
Alternate Tune:
If you know where to get a good photo of Walter (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
Nolan R. Best, then editor of The Continent, happened to say to me that there was urgent need of a brotherhood hymn…The suggestion lingered in my mind, and just about that time I came upon an article by Gerald Stanley Lee, entitled The Church of the Strong Men.
I was on one of the Lake Michigan steamers going back to Chicago for a Sunday at my own church, when suddenly this hymn came up, almost without conscious thought or effort.
Laufer, pp. 132–33
Rise up, O men of God!
Have done with lesser things.
Give heart and mind and soul and strength
To serve the King of kings.
Rise up, O men of God!
The kingdom tarries long.
Bring in the day of brotherhood
And end the night of wrong.
Rise up, O men of God!
The church for you doth wait,
Her strength unequal to her task;
Rise up and make her great!
Lift high the cross of Christ!
Tread where His feet have trod.
As brothers of the Son of Man,
Rise up, O men of God!