I Was A Wandering Sheep

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

I was a wandering sheep

Author: Horatius Bonar (1843)
Tune: LEBANON (Zundel)
Published in 498 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI, Recording

Piano/Organ
	Preludes of Praise and Adoration (Inspir…

Instrumental
	Trumpet Solos for Worship

Handbells
	THIS IS MY FATHER'S WORLD

Representative Text

1 I was a wand'ring sheep,
I did not love the fold;
I did not love my Shepherd's voice,
I would not be controlled.
I was a wayward child,
I did not love my home;
I did not love my Father's voice,
I loved afar to roam.

2 The Shepherd sought his sheep,
the Father sought his child;
they followed me o'er vale and hill,
o'er deserts waste and wild:
they found me nigh to death,
famished and faint and lone;
they bound me with the bands of love,
they saved the wand'ring one.

3 Jesus my Shepherd is;
'twas he that loved my soul,
'twas he that washed me in his blood,
'twas he that made me whole;
'twas he that sought the lost,
that found the wand'ring sheep,
'twas he that brought me to the fold,
'tis he that still doth keep.

4 I was a wand'ring sheep,
I would not be controlled;
but now I love my Shepherd's voice,
I love, I love the fold.
I was a wayward child,
I once preferred to roam;
but now I love my Father's voice,
I love, I love his home.

Source: Trinity Hymnal (Rev. ed.) #464

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

Author: Horatius Bonar

Horatius Bonar was born at Edinburgh, in 1808. His education was obtained at the High School, and the University of his native city. He was ordained to the ministry, in 1837, and since then has been pastor at Kelso. In 1843, he joined the Free Church of Scotland. His reputation as a religious writer was first gained on the publication of the "Kelso Tracts," of which he was the author. He has also written many other prose works, some of which have had a very large circulation. Nor is he less favorably known as a religious poet and hymn-writer. The three series of "Hymns of Faith and Hope," have passed through several editions. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872… Go to person page >

^ top

First Line:	I was a wandering sheep
Title:	I Was A Wandering Sheep
Author:	Horatius Bonar (1843)
Meter:	6.6.8.6 D
Language:	English
Notes:	Arabic translation: "تهت عن القطيع مثل الخروف الضال" اسعد الشدودي; Spanish translations: "Oveja errante fui" by Natán Hege, "Oveja vaga fui" by Wayne Andersen; Swahili translation: See "Nilikuwa kondoo"
Copyright:	Public Domain

Chinese

生命聖詩 - Hymns of Life, 1986 #411

English

10 shown out of 306

^ top

Notes

I was a wandering sheep. H. Bonar. [The Lost Sheep.] Published in the first series of his Songs in the Wilderness, 1843, No. 1, in 5 stanzas of 8 lines, and headed, "Lost but Found, ‘Ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls, 1 Pet. ii. 25.'" It was repeated in his Bible Hymn Book, 1845, No. 264, and in his Hymns of Faith and Hope, 1857. It ranks with the most popular of Dr. Bonar's hymns, and is in common use (usually in an unaltered form), in all English-speaking countries.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

^ top