Saturday, April 29, 2023

Lift up your hearts!

716 C. M.
Rejoicing in hope.

LIFT up your hearts to things above,
   Ye followers of the Lamb,
   And join with us to praise his love,
   And glorify his Name.

2 To Jesus’ Name give thanks and sing,
   Whose mercies never end:
   Rejoice! rejoice! the Lord is King;
   The King is now our Friend.

3 We for his sake count all things loss;
   On earthly good look down;
   And joyfully sustain the cross,
   Till we receive the crown.

4 O let us stir each other up,
   Our faith by works to’ approve,—
   By holy, purifying hope,
   And the sweet task of love.

5 Let all who for the promise wait,
   The Holy Ghost receive;
   And, raised to our unsinning state,
   With God in Eden live:—

6 Live, till the Lord in glory come,
   And wait his heaven to share:
   He now is fitting up your home;
   Go on, we ’ll meet you there.
                          Charles Wesley
                          Methodist Episcopal hymnal (1870 edition)

<idle musing>
Interestingly, hymnary.org omits the fifth verse, but inserts five other ones before our verse 6:

5. Love us, though far in flesh disjoined,
   Ye lovers of the Lamb;
   And ever bear us on your mind,
   Who think and speak the same:

6. You on our minds we ever bear,
   Whoe’er to Jesus bow;
   Stretch out the arms of faith and prayer,
   And lo! we reach you now.

7. Surely we now your souls embrace,
   With you we now appear
   Present before the throne of grace,
   And you, and Christ, are here.

8. The blessings all on you be shed,
   Which God in Christ imparts;
   We pray the Spirit of our Head
   Into your faithful hearts.

9. Mercy and peace your portion be,
   To carnal minds unknown,
   The hidden manna, and the tree
   Of life, and the white stone.

Personally, I can understand why they omitted them in the 1870 hymnal; they are kind of weak. But it's too bad that hymnary.org deleted verse 5; it has some classic Wesleyan/holiness theology—of course that might be why they omitted it!
</idle musing>

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