1 Wide open are Thy hands,
Paying with more than gold
The awful debt of guilty men,
Forever and of old.
2 Ah, let me grasp those hands,
That we may never part,
And let the power of their blood
Sustain my fainting heart.
3 Wide open are Thine arms,
A fallen world t'embrace;
To take to love and endless rest
Our whole forsaken race.
4 Lord, I am sad and poor,
But boundless is Thy grace;
Give me the soul transforming joy
For which I seek Thy face.
5 Draw all my mind and heart
Up to Thy throne on high,
And let Thy sacred Cross exalt
My spirit to the sky.
6 To these, Thy mighty hand,
My spirit I resign;
Living, I live alone to Thee,
And, dying, I am Thine.
Source: Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #265
Bernard of Clairvaux, saint, abbot, and doctor, fills one of the most conspicuous positions in the history of the middle ages. His father, Tecelin, or Tesselin, a knight of great bravery, was the friend and vassal of the Duke of Burgundy. Bernard was born at his father's castle on the eminence of Les Fontaines, near Dijon, in Burgundy, in 1091. He was educated at Chatillon, where he was distinguished for his studious and meditative habits. The world, it would be thought, would have had overpowering attractions for a youth who, like Bernard, had all the advantages that high birth, great personal beauty, graceful manners, and irresistible influence could give, but, strengthened in the resolve by night visions of his mother (who had died in 1… Go to person page >
Charles Porterfield Krauth, D.D.,LL. D.: b. 1823, Martinsburg,Va.; d. 1883. pastor at Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia; President of General Council 1870 to 1880; Professor at the University of Penna; professor of Theology, Phila., Pa.; author of "The Conservative Reformation"
Evangelical Lutheran Hymnal, 1908 Go to person page >
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