Scripture Verse

The world is Mine. Psalm 50:12

Introduction

portrait
Evangeline C. Booth
1865–1950

Words & Mu­sic: Ev­an­ge­line C. Booth, 1934 (🔊 pdf nwc).

I wrote it at three o’clock in the morn­ing, bowed un­der the im­mea­sur­a­ble bur­den of the stu­pen­dous re­spon­si­bil­it­ies of the call that had come to me on be­ing elect­ed Ge­ne­ral of the In­ter­na­tion­al Sal­va­tion Ar­my.

Evangeline Booth, Songs of the Ev­an­gel, 1937

Lyrics

The world for God! The world for God!
There’s no­thing else will meet the hun­ger of my soul.
I see for­sak­en child­ren, I see the tears that fall
From wo­men’s eyes once mer­ry, now ne­ver laugh at all;
I see the sins and sor­rows of those who sit in dark­ness;
I see in lands far dist­ant, the hun­gry and op­pressed.
But be­hold! On a hill, Cal­va­ry! Cal­va­ry!

Refrain

The world for God! The world for God!
I give my heart! I’ll do my part!
The world for God! The world for God!
I give my heart! I’ll do my part!

The world for God! The world for God!
I call to arms the sol­diers of the blood and fire:
Go with the Ho­ly Bi­ble. Its words are peace and life
To mul­ti­tudes who strug­gle with crime and want and strife.
Go with your songs of mer­cy, show Christ in lov­ing kind­ness,
Make known the suf­fer­ings of the cross, the sac­ri­fice of God.
For beh­old! On a hill, Cal­va­ry! Cal­va­ry!

Refrain

The world for God! The world for God!
For this, dear Lord, give to my soul con­sum­ing fire.
Give fire that makes men he­roes, turns weak­ness in­to might,
The fire that gives the cour­age to suf­fer for the fight,
The fire that changes fear­ing to Pen­te­cost­al dar­ing,
The fire that makes me will­ing for Christ to live or die;
For be­hold! On a hill, Cal­va­ry! Cal­va­ry!

Refrain