Dear Lord, on this Thy servant's day

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Dear Lord, on this Thy servant's day

Author: Cecil Frances Alexander
Tune: ST. BERNARD (Monk)
Published in 2 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1. Dear Lord, on this Thy servant’s day,
Who left for Thee the gold and mart,
Who heard Thee whisper, Come away,
And followed with a single heart,

2. Give us, amid earth’s weary moil,
And wealth for which men cark and care,
’Mid fortune’s pride, and need’s wild toil,
And broken hearts in purple rare,

3. Give us Thy grace to rise above
The glare of this world’s smelting fires;
Let God’s great love put out the love
Of gold, and gain, and low desires.

4. Still, like a breath from scented lime
Borne into rooms where sick men faint,
His voice comes floating through all time,
Thine own evangelist and saint.

5. Still sweetly rings the Gospel strain
Of golden store that knows not rust:
The love of Christ is more than gain,
And heavenly crowns than yellow dust.

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #1239

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Author: Cecil Frances Alexander

As a small girl, Cecil Frances Humphries (b. Redcross, County Wicklow, Ireland, 1818; Londonderry, Ireland, 1895) wrote poetry in her school's journal. In 1850 she married Rev. William Alexander, who later became the Anglican primate (chief bishop) of Ireland. She showed her concern for disadvantaged people by traveling many miles each day to visit the sick and the poor, providing food, warm clothes, and medical supplies. She and her sister also founded a school for the deaf. Alexander was strongly influenced by the Oxford Movement and by John Keble's Christian Year. Her first book of poetry, Verses for Seasons, was a "Christian Year" for children. She wrote hymns based on the Apostles' Creed, baptism, the Lord's Supper, the Ten Commandment… Go to person page >

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