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.
She is 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.
The Church shall never perish!
Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain, and cherish,
Is with her to the end:
Though there be those who hate her,
And false sons in her pale,
Against or foe or traitor
She ever shall prevail.
Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won,
With all her sons and daughters
Who, by the Master’s hand
Led through the deathly waters,
Repose in Eden land.
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with Thee:
There, past the border mountains,
Where in sweet vales the Bride
With Thee by living fountains
Forever shall abide!
About the writer: Samuel John Stone, a clergyman in the Church of England, was born in Staffordshire, England in 1839. He was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1862. He served various Churches until he succeeded his father at St. Paul’s, Haggerstown in 1874. He was the author of many original hymns and translations, which were collected and published in 1886. He died in 1900.
Key Verse: For no one can lay any other foundation than the one we already have–Jesus Christ. –1 Corinthians 3:11