Christ My Song - 860
What! Know ye not - Know ye not?
(Horatius Bonar/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
Know ye not?
1. What! Know ye not
that, of all those who run some earthly race,
one only wins the prize?
So run that ye may win;
end well, end well what ye begin.
Lest turning back ye fall,
and end by losing all, –
O loss without repair! (PDF - Midi)
2. What! Know ye not
that the true temple of the Lord are ye,
home of the Holy Ghost?
Defile, destroy it not,
but keep it, keep it without spot.
It is no earthly shrine,
but heavenly and divine, –
pollute ye not its courts!
3. What! Know ye not
that saints shall judge the world, nay, angels too?
Judge then true judgment here, –
walking in ways upright,
as judges of the age of light,
with holy charity,
yet with calm equity,
doing and speaking truth.
4. What! Know ye not
that the unrighteous cannot enter in,
nor tread the holy ground?
The imperfect is not there,
but beauty, beauty everywhere,
perfection near and far;
no taint, nor sin, nor jar, –
all holiness and peace!
5. What! Know ye not
that they who love the world have not in them
the love of God? That love
comes from a holy heaven,
and to us here on earth is given,
to draw us up from earth,
to where it has its birth,
the bosom of our God.
6. What! Know ye not
that thus even here ye must be holy men?
The Nazarites of God;
that walk with the unseen,
with feet washed in the laver clean,
and garments undefiled.
Though all around be soiled,
thou must be pure and fair.
Horatius Bonar, The Song of the New Creation, 1872, 158-159.