Scripture Verse

Before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. Matthew 25:32

Introduction

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Henry Alford (1810–1871)
National Portrait Gallery

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Words: Hen­ry Al­ford, Psalms and Hymns Adapt­ed to the Sun­days and Ho­ly­days Through­out the Year (Lon­don: Fran­cis & John Riv­ing­ton, 1844), num­ber 119.

Music: St. Sav­iour (Gaul) Al­fred R. Gaul (1837–1913) (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

Lyrics

Thou didst toil my soul to gain,
Didst re­deem me with Thy pain,
Be such la­bor not in vain.
Thou just Judge of wrath se­vere,
Grant my sins re­mis­sion here,
Ere Thy reck­on­ing day ap­pear.
My trans­gress­ions griev­ous are,
Scarce look up for shame I dare.
Lord, Thy guil­ty sup­pli­ant spare.

Thou didst heal the sin­ner’s grief,
And didst hear the dy­ing thief—
Even I may hope re­lief.
All un­wor­thy is my pray­er;
Make my soul Thy mer­cy’s care,
And from fire eter­nal spare.
Place me with Thy sheep—that band
Who shall se­pa­rat­ed stand
From the goats, on Thy right hand.

When Thy voice in wrath shall say,
Cursèd ones, de­part away!
Call me with the blest, I pray.
Lord, Thine ear in mer­cy bow;
Broken is my heart and low:
Guard of my last end be Thou.
In that day, that mourn­ful day,
When to judg­ment wakes our clay,
Show me mer­cy, Lord, I pray.