1 How shall I follow Him I serve?
How shall I copy Him I love?
Nor from those blessed footsteps swerve,
Which lead me to His seat above?
2 Privations, sorrows, bitter scorn,
The life of toil, the mean abode,
The faithless kiss, the crown of thorn,--
Are these the consecrated road?
3 'Twas thus He suffered, though a Son,
Foreknowing, choosing, feeling all,
Until the perfect work was done,
And drunk the bitter cup of gall.
4 Lord, should my path through suffering lie,
Forbid it I should e'er repine;
Still let me turn to Calvary,
Nor heed my griefs, remembering Thine.
5 O let me think how Thou didst leave
Untasted every pure delight,
To fast, to faint, to watch, to grieve,
The toilsome day, the homeless night:--
6 To faint, to grieve, to die for me!
Thou camest, not Thyself to please;
And, dear as earthly comforts be,
Shall I not love Thee more than these?
7 Yes, I would count them all but loss,
To gain the notice of Thine eye:
Flesh shrinks and trembles at the cross,
But Thou canst give the victory.
The Hymnal: Published by the authority of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 1895
First Line: | How Shall I Follow Him I Serve? |
Author: | Josiah Conder |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
How shall I follow Him I serve. J. Conder. [Resignation and Suffering.] This hymn, in 11 stanzas of 4 lines, on the words, "If any man serve Me, let him follow Me," is in his Star in the East, &c, 1824, p. 62. In 1836 it was rewritten and divided into two hymns, the first in 7 stanzas beginning with the same first line, and included as No. 341 in the Congregational Hymn Book, 1836; and the second in 3 stanza, as "Thou Who for Peter's faith didst pray!" No. 588 in the same collection. The modern arrangements of these hymns, as in the Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858; the New Congregational Hymn Book, 1859; Kennedy, 1863, and others are from this 1836 text. In Conder's Hymns of Praise, Prayer, &c, 1856, p. 80, the two hymns are given as one, as in the Star in the East, &c.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)