1 "Repent, repent," the Baptist cries
"For near at hand is He
Who with the Spirit will baptize:
Th’incarnate Deity!
I am the voice, He th’eternal Word;
I but a servant, He th’almighty Lord."
2 As Thou Thy messenger didst send
O Lord, before Thy face,
So send’st Thou ever, till the end,
Thy ministers of grace;
Thou comest in them; all they have is Thine;
They are but channels, Thou the source divine.
3 O blessed Savior, may we learn
Thee in Thy church to see,
Thee in Thy ministers discern,
And in them honor Thee;
Thou at the font and altar, Lord, dost stand,
Tending, unseen, Thy people with Thy hand.
O may Thy pastors faithful be,
And feed with wholesome food
Thy own dear flock, redeemed by Thee
With Thy most precious blood.
So at Thy second coming we and they
May in Thy heav’nly fold be safe alway.
Source: The Cyber Hymnal #16064
Christopher Wordsworth--nephew of the great lake-poet, William Wordsworth--was born in 1807. He was educated at Winchester, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A., with high honours, in 1830; M.A. in 1833; D.D. in 1839. He was elected Fellow of his College in 1830, and public orator of the University in 1836; received Priest's Orders in 1835; head master of Harrow School in 1836; Canon of Westminster Abbey in 1844; Hulsean Lecturer at Cambridge in 1847-48; Vicar of Stanford-in-the-Vale, Berks, in 1850; Archdeacon of Westminster, in 1865; Bishop of Lincoln, in 1868. His writings are numerous, and some of them very valuable. Most of his works are in prose. His "Holy Year; or, Hymns for Sundays, Holidays, and other occ… Go to person page >
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