The fast, as taught by holy lore

Top Media Text Author Text Info Notes Tune Timeline Page Scans Instances

The fast, as taught by holy lore

Author: John Mason Neale
Tune: JESU CORONA
Published in 5 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1. The fast, as taught by holy lore,
We keep in solemn course once more;
The fast to all men known, and bound
In forty days of yearly round.

2. The law and seers that were of old
In divers ways this Lent foretold
Which Christ, all seasons’ king and guide,
In after ages sanctified.

3. More sparing therefore let us make
The words we speak, the food we take,
Our sleep and mirth, and closer barred
Be every sense in holy guard.

4. In prayer together let us fall,
And cry for mercy, one and all,
And weep before the Judge’s feet,
And His avenging wrath entreat.

5. Thy grace have we offended sore,
By sins, O God, which we deplore;
But pour upon us from on high,
O pardoning One, Thy clemency.

6. Remember Thou, though frail we be,
That yet Thine handiwork are we;
Nor let the honor of Thy name
Be by another put to shame.

7. Forgive the sin that we have wrought;
Increase the good that we have sought;
That we at length, our wanderings o’er,
May please Thee here and evermore.

8. We pray Thee, holy Trinity,
One God, unchanging Unity,
That we from this our abstinence
May reap the fruits of penitence.

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #1648

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

Author: John Mason Neale

John M. Neale's life is a study in contrasts: born into an evangelical home, he had sympathies toward Rome; in perpetual ill health, he was incredibly productive; of scholarly temperament, he devoted much time to improving social conditions in his area; often ignored or despised by his contemporaries, he is lauded today for his contributions to the church and hymnody. Neale's gifts came to expression early–he won the Seatonian prize for religious poetry eleven times while a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, England. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1842, but ill health and his strong support of the Oxford Movement kept him from ordinary parish ministry. So Neale spent the years between 1846 and 1866 as a warden of Sackvi… Go to person page >

^ top

Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	The fast, as taught by holy lore
Author:	John Mason Neale
Language:	English

^ top

Notes

The fast as taught by holy lore. By J. M. Neale, from the Sarum text. Appeared in the Hymnal Noted, 1854; and repeated in the Hymner, 1882. In Skinner's Daily Service Hymnal, 1863, it begins with stanza iv., "In prayer together let us fall." This form is also in some American collections.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

^ top