Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church ‎#198

198. The Church's one foundation

1 The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ, her Lord;
She is His new creation
By water and the Word;
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy Bride,
With His own Blood He bought her,
And for her life He died.

2 Elect from every nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation
One Lord, one Faith, one Birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy Food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.

3 Though, with a scornful wonder,
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed;
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song.

4 'Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace forevermore;
Till, with the vision glorious
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.

Amen.

Text Information

• First Line: The Church's one foundation
• Author: Samuel John Stone (1866)
• Meter: 7 6, 7 6. D.
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 1917
• Notes: Public Domain.

Tune Information

• Name: AURELIA
• Composer: Samuel S. Wesley (1864)
• Meter: 7 6, 7 6. D.
• Key: E♭ Major
• Notes: Public Domain.