Christ My Song-Logo
Hymn score of: In thy service will I ever - I will abide with thee (Carl Johann Philipp Spitta/Richard Massie/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)

Christ My Song - 240

In thy service will I ever - I will abide with thee
(Carl Johann Philipp Spitta/Richard Massie/
Johannes Thomas Rüegg)

I will abide with thee.

1. In thy service will I ever,
  Jesus, my Redeemer, stay;
nothing me from thee shall sever,
  gladly would I go the way.
Life in me thy life produces,
  and gives vigour to my heart,
as the vine doth living juices
  to the purple grape impart. PDF - Midi

2. Could I be in other places
  half so happy as with thee,
who so many gifts and graces
  hast thyself prepared for me?
No place could be half so fitted
  to impart true joy, I ween,
since to thee, O Lord, committed
  power in heaven and earth hath been.

3. Where shall I find such a Master,
  who hath done my soul such good,
and retrieved the great disaster
  sin first caused, by his own blood?
Is not he my rightful owner,
  who for me his own life gave?
Were it not a foul dishonour
  not to love him to the grave?

4. Yes, Lord Jesus, I am ever
  thine in sorrow and in joy;
death the union shall not sever,
  nor eternity destroy.
I am waiting, yea, am sighing
  for my summons to depart;
he is best prepared for dying
  who in life is thine in heart.

5. Let thy light on me be shining
  when the day is almost gone,
when the evening is declining,
  and the night is drawing on;
bless me, O my Father, laying
  both thy hands on my meek head,
"Here thy day is ended," saying,
  "yonder live the faithful dead."

6. Stay beside me, when the stillness
  and the icy touch of death
fill my trembling soul with chillness,
  like the morning's frosty breath;
as my failing eyes grow dimmer,
  let my spirit grow more bright,
as I see the first faint glimmer
  of the everlasting light.

Richard Massie, Lyra Domestica I, 1863, 59-60.
Translated from the German Bei dir, Jesu, will ich bleiben - Ich bleibe stets bei dir
of Carl Johann Philipp Spitta.

            PDF - Midi