Love to the Church

I love thy kingdom, Lord,

The house of thine abode,

The church our blest Redeemer saved With his own precious blood.

I love thy church, O God!

Her walls before thee stand,

Dear as the apple of thine eye,
And graven on thy hand.

If e'er to bless thy sons

My voice or hands deny,

These hands let useful skill forsake,

This voice in silence die.

For her my tears shall fall,

For her my prayers ascend;

To her my cares and toils be given
Till toils and cares shall end.

Beyond my highest joy

I prize her heavenly ways,

Her sweet communion, solemn vows, Her hymns of love and praise.

Jesus, thou friend divine,

Our Saviour and our King,

Thy hand from every snare and foe
Shall great deliverance bring.

Sure as thy truth shall last,

To Zion shall be given

The brightest glories earth can yield, And brighter bliss of heaven.

Psalm CXXXVII

The Babylonian Captivity

Along the banks where Babel's current flows Our captive bands in deep despondence stray'd, While Zion's fall in sad remembrance rose,

Her friends, her children mingled with the dead. The tuneless harp, that once with joy we strung, When praise employ'd and mirth inspir'd the lay, In mournful silence on the willows hung;

And growing grief prolong'd the tedious day.

The barbarous tyrants, to increase the woe,
With taunting smiles a song of Zion claim;
Bid sacred praise in strains melodious flow,
While they blaspheme the great Jehovah's name.
But how, in heathen chains and lands unknown,
Shall Israel's sons a song of Zion raise?
O hapless Salem, God's terrestrial throne,
Thou land of glory, sacred mount of praise.

If e'er my memory lose thy lovely name,

If my cold heart neglect my kindred race, Let dire destruction seize this guilty frame; My hand shall perish and my voice shall cease. Yet shall the Lord, who hears when Zion calls, O'ertake her foes with terror and dismay,

His arm avenge her desolated walls,

And raise her children to eternal day.

The Star-Spangled Banner

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleam

ing?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous

fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly stream

ing;

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses ?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream;
'Tis the star-spangled banner; O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.