EN 4998 What Thanks and Praise to Thee We Owe
2Cor.8.18
Versi Version 1
1
What thanks and praise to Thee we owe,
O Priest and Sacrifice divine,
For Thy dear saint through whom we know
So many a gracious word of Thine;
2
Whom Thou didst choose to tell the tale
Of all Thy manhood’s toils and tears,
And for a moment lift the veil
That hides Thy boyhood’s spotless years.
3
How many a soul with guilt oppressed
Has learned to hear the joyful sound
In that sweet tale of sin confessed
The Father’s love, the lost and found?
4
How many a child of sin and shame
Has refuge found from guilty fears
Through her, who to the Savior came
With costly ointments and with tears!
5
What countless worshippers have sung,
In lowly fane or lofty choir,
The song that loosed the silent tongue
Of him who was the Baptist’s sire!
6
And still the Church through all her days
Uplifts the strains that never cease,
The blessed virgin’s hymn of praise,
The aged Simeon’s words of peace.
7
O happy saint! whose sacred page,
So rich in words of truth and love,
Pours on the Church from age to age
This healing unction from above;
8
The witness of the Savior’s life,
The great Apostle’s chosen friend
Through weary years of toil and strife
And still found faithful to the end.
9
So grant us, Lord, like him to live,
Beloved by man, approved by Thee,
Till Thou at last the summons give,
And we, with him, Thy face shall see.

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