Brief Life Is Here Our Portion

Representative Text

1 Brief life is here our portion;
Brief sorrow, short-lived care:
The life that knows no ending,
The tearless life is there.

2 And now we fight the battle,
But then shall wear the crown
Of full, and everlasting,
And passionless renown.

3 The morning shall awaken,
The shadows shall decay,
And each true-hearted servant
Shall shine as doth the day.

4 There God, our King and Portion,
In fullness of His grace,
Shall we behold for ever,
And worship face to face.

Source: Praise for the Lord (Expanded Edition) #81

Author: Bernard, of Cluny

Bernard of Morlaix, or of Cluny, for he is equally well known by both titles, was an Englishman by extraction, both his parents being natives of this country. He was b., however, in France very early in the 12th cent, at Morlaix, Bretagne. Little or nothing is known of his life, beyond the fact that he entered the Abbey of Cluny, of which at that time Peter the Venerable, who filled the post from 1122 to 1156, was the head. There, so far as we know, he spent his whole after-life, and there he probably died, though the exact date of his death, as well as of his birth is unrecorded. The Abbey of Cluny was at that period at the zenith of its wealth and fame. Its buildings, especially its church (which was unequalled by any in France); the serv… Go to person page >

Translator: J. M. 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 >

Timeline

Media

The Cyber Hymnal #625
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Instances

Instances (1 - 6 of 6)

Great Songs of the Church (Revised) #673

Text

Praise for the Lord (Expanded Edition) #81

The Baptist Hymnal #671

TextScoreAudio

The Cyber Hymnal #625

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The New English Hymnal #326a

TextPage Scan

The New English Hymnal #326b

Include 239 pre-1979 instances
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