O what, if we are Christ's

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O what, if we are Christ's

Author: H. W. Baker (1852)
Published in 133 hymnals

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Representative Text

1 O what, if we are Christ's,
Is earthly shame or loss?
Bright shall the crown of glory be
When we have borne the cross.

2 Keen was the trial once,
Bitter the cup of woe,
When martyred saints, baptized in blood,
Christ's sufferings shared below.

3 Bright is their glory now,
Boundless their joy above,
Where on the bosom of their God,
They rest in perfect love.

4 Lord, may that grace be ours,
Like them in faith to bear
All that of sorrow, grief or pain,
May be our portion here.

5 Enough if Thou at last
The word of blessing give,
And let us rest in thine own home,
Where saints and angels live.

6 All glory, Lord, to Thee,
Whom heav'n and earth adore;
To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
One God forevermore.

Amen.

Source: Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church #388

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Author: H. W. Baker

Baker, Sir Henry Williams, Bart., eldest son of Admiral Sir Henry Loraine Baker, born in London, May 27, 1821, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated, B.A. 1844, M.A. 1847. Taking Holy Orders in 1844, he became, in 1851, Vicar of Monkland, Herefordshire. This benefice he held to his death, on Monday, Feb. 12, 1877. He succeeded to the Baronetcy in 1851. Sir Henry's name is intimately associated with hymnody. One of his earliest compositions was the very beautiful hymn, "Oh! what if we are Christ's," which he contributed to Murray's Hymnal for the Use of the English Church, 1852. His hymns, including metrical litanies and translations, number in the revised edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern, 33 in all. These were cont… Go to person page >

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First Line:	O what, if we are Christ's
Author:	H. W. Baker (1852)
Meter:	6.6.8.6
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

O! what, if we are Christ's. Sir H. W. Baker. [Feasts of Martyrs.] First published in Murray's Hymnal, 1852, No. 126, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed "Ye shall indeed drink of My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with." It was repeated in the following year in the Cooke & Denton Church Hymnal, No. 166, where it was appointed for the "Conversion of St. Paul." This was followed in 1857 by the Salisbury Hymn Book, No. 161, where it was given as one of the hymns for the "Festivals of Martyrs." In 1859 it appeared in the trial copy of Hymns Ancient & Modern, No. 126, with stanza iv., l. 2, changed from " Ever like them to bear," to "Like them in faith to bear," and the substitution of a new doxology. These changes were retained in the authorized Hymns Ancient & Modern, 1861, and in the revised edition, 1875. Also found in a large number of hymn-books.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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