Round the sac­red ci­ty ga­ther
Egypt, Ed­om, Ba­by­lon;
All the war­ring hosts of er­ror,
Sworn against her, move as one:
Vain the leag­uer! her foun­da­tions
Are upon the ho­ly hills,
And the love of the Eter­nal
All her state­ly tem­ple fills.

Get thee, watch­man, to the ram­part!
Gird thee, war­ri­or, with thy sword!
Be ye strong as ye re­mem­ber
That amidst you is the Lord:
Like the night mists from the val­ley,
These shall van­ish one by one,
Egypt’s mal­ice, Ed­om’s en­vy,
And the hate of Ba­by­lon.

But be true, ye sons and daugh­ters,
Lest the per­il be with­in:
Watch to pray­er, lest, while ye slum­ber,
Stealthy foe­men en­ter in:
Safe the mo­ther and the child­ren,
In their will and love be strong,
While their loy­al hearts go sing­ing
Prayer and praise for bat­tle song.

Church of God! if we for­get thee
Let His bless­ings fail our hand,
When our love shall not pre­fer thee
Let His love for­get our land—
Nay! to thee shall we be stead­fast,
Though the world’s foun­da­tions shake,
Love of thee is love for ev­er,
Love of thee for Je­sus’ sake.

Church of Christ! up­on thy ban­ner,
Lo, His pas­sion’s aw­ful sign;
By that seal of His re­demp­tion
Thou art His, and He is thine:
From the depth of His atone­ment
Flows thy sac­ra­ment­al tide:
From the height of His as­cen­sion
Flows the grace which is thy guide.

God the Spir­it dwells with­in thee,
His so­ci­ety di­vine,
His the liv­ing Word thou keep­est,
His thy apos­tol­ic line.
Ancient pray­er and song li­tur­gics,
Creeds that change not to the end,
As His gift we have re­ceived them,
As His charge we will de­fend.

Alleluia, al­le­lu­ia,
To the Fa­ther, Spir­it, Son,
In whose will the Church at war­fare
With the Church at rest is one;
So to Thee we sing in un­ion,
God in earth and Heav’n ad­ored,
Alleluia, al­le­lu­ia,
Holy, holy, holy Lord.