Christ My Song - 459

Not to ourselves again - Not to self
(Horatius Bonar/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)

Not to self.

1. Not to ourselves again,
not to the flesh we live;
not to the world henceforth shall we
our strength, our being give. (PDF - Midi)

2. The time past of our lives
sufficeth to have wrought
the fleshy will, which only ill
hath to us ever brought.

3. No longer is our life
a thing unused or vain;
to us, even here, to live is Christ,
to us to die is gain.

4. Our life is hid with Christ,
with Christ in God above;
upward our heart would go to him,
whom, seeing not, we love.

5. When he who is our life
appears, to take the throne,
we too shall be revealed, and shine
in glory like his own.

6. He liveth, and we live!
His life for us prevails;
his fulness fills our mighty void,
his strength for us avails.

7. Life worketh in us now,
life is for us in store;
so death is swallowed up of life;
we live for evermore.

8. Shine as the sun shall we
in the bright kingdom then,
our sky without a cloud or mist,
ourselves without a stain.

9. Like him we then shall be,
transformed and glorified;
for we shall see him as he is,
and in his light abide.

10. Not to ourselves we live,
not to ourselves we die;
unto the Lord we die or live;
with him we sit on high.

11. We seek the things above,
for we are only his;
like him we soon shall be, for we
shall see him as he is.

Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope III, 1878, 80-82.