Scripture Verse

I lay a stone in Zi­on a test­ed stone, a pre­cious cor­ner­stone for a sure found­ation. Isaiah 28:16

Introduction

portrait
James Montgomery
(1771–1854)

Words: James Mont­go­me­ry, 1822. Writ­ten for the lay­ing of the found­ation stone of Christ Church, At­ter­cliffe, Shef­field, and sung at that ce­re­mo­ny on Oc­to­ber 30, 1822. It was print­ed in Mont­gom­ery’s news­pap­er, the Shef­field Ir­is, No­vem­ber 5, 1822, to­ge­ther with a full ac­count of the ce­re­mo­ny. It lat­er ap­peared in The Christ­ian Psalm­ist (Glas­gow, Scot­land: Chalm­ers & Col­lins, 1825), num­ber 474. On lay­ing the found­ation stone of a place for wor­ship.

Music: Men­don Ger­man tune, ar­ranged by Sam­uel Dyer, Sup­ple­ment of Sam­uel Dy­er’s Third Edi­tion of Sac­red Mu­sic, 1828 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Dy­er (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

This stone to Thee in faith we lay,
We build the tem­ple, Lord, to Thee;
Thine eye be op­en night and day
To guard this house and sanc­tu­ary.

Here, when Thy peo­ple seek Thy face,
And dy­ing sin­ners pray to live,
Hear Thou in Heav’n, Thy dwell­ing place,
And when Thou hear­est, O for­give!

Here, when Thy mes­sen­gers pro­claim
The bless­èd Gos­pel of Thy Son,
Still by the power of His great name
Be migh­ty signs and won­ders done.

Hosanna! to their heav’n­ly king,
When child­ren’s voic­es raise that song;
Hosanna! let their an­gels sing,
And Heav’n with earth the strain pro­long.

But will in­deed Jehovah deign
Here to ab­ide, no tran­si­ent guest?
Here will the world’s Re­deem­er reign,
And here the Holy Spir­it rest?

That glo­ry nev­er hence de­part!
Yet choose not, Lord, this house alone;
Thy king­dom come to ev­ery heart,
In ev­ery bo­som fix Thy throne.