Rev. Roger Perry
"noli me tangere"
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Status: Offline | The Sweet Singer of Scotland
The sweet singer of Scotland is a title given to Horatius Bonar, a man who, over a period of something like fifty years, wrote over 60 hymns.
His first one was composed during the time he was the Minister of a mission church in a poor area of Leith. Bein g concerned about the dearth of songs for his Sunday School, he set about writing simple songs about the Gospel and Jesus. Later, he started to write hymns for the adults too, his first one being, "Go Labour on", and he wrote this to encourage his co workers as they worked amongst the people Jesus loved the most - the least, the last and the lost.
Horatius always kept a notebook on his person so that when a thought for a hymn came into his head, he could immediately write it down.
After the death of Scotland’s greatest hymn writer,
Thomas Chalmers, (1780 - 1847) Bonar became the most notable spiritual leader in Scotland. The strange thing was that his hymns were not used in the established, Scottish church during his lifetime. In 1898, a hymnal was created by the Scottish churches, containing many of his hymns.
Go, labor on: spend, and be spent,
Thy joy to do the Father’s will:
It is the way the Master went;
Should not the servant tread it still?
Go, labor on! ’tis not for naught
Thine earthly loss is heavenly gain;
Men heed thee, love thee, praise thee not;
The Master praises: what are men?
Go, labor on! enough, while here,
If He shall praise thee, if He deign
The willing heart to mark and cheer:
No toil for Him shall be in vain.
Go, labor on! Your hands are weak,
Your knees are faint, your soul cast down;
Yet falter not; the prize you seek
Is near—a kingdom and a crown.
Go, labor on while it is day:
The world’s dark night is hastening on;
Speed, speed thy work, cast sloth away;
It is not thus that souls are won.
Men die in darkness at thy side,
Without a hope to cheer the tomb;
Take up the torch and wave it wide,
The torch that lights time’s thickest gloom.
Toil on, faint not, keep watch and pray,
Be wise the erring soul to win;
Go forth into the world’s highway,
Compel the wanderer to come in.
Toil on, and in thy toil rejoice!
For toil comes rest, for exile home;
Soon shalt thou hear the Bridegroom’s voice,
The midnight peal, “Behold, I come!”
Last edited by Rev. Roger Perry | | Report Post |
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