Christ — Life and Character

How shall I follow Him I serve

No. 304
Metre L. M.
Tune GERMANY.
Words Josiah Conder.
Music Ludwig von Beethoven.
Key B-flat major
Singing key B♭ major
Time 3/4
4 stanzas

Words

How shall I follow Him I serve?How shall I copy Him I love?Nor from those blessed footsteps swerveWhich lead me to his seat above?

Lord, should my path through suffering lie,Forbid that I should e'er repine;Still let me turn to Calvary,Nor heed my grief, remembering thine.

O, let me think how thou didst leaveThy heavenly home of pure delights,To fast, to faint, to watch, to grieve,Through toilsome days, through lonely nights!

All this thou didst, then died for me!Thou camest not thyself to please;And, dear though earthly comforts be,Shall I not love thee more than these?

About this hymn

As printed As printed: running head «CHRIST—LIFE AND CHARACTER.»; hymn number «304» (large), tune name «GERMANY. L. M.» centred over the music (condensed capitals and small capitals; the marks after «GERMANY», «L» and «M» are all periods), «LUDWIG VON BEETHOVEN.» at the right (capitals and small capitals). Stanza 1 is interlinear, between the staves, one line per system, with «1.» before «How» («fol - low», «cop - y», «bless - ed», «a - bove» hyphenated under the notes; «footsteps» printed as one word across two notes — see `lyrics_syllables.txt`). Stanzas 2–4 are printed as text in the left column below the music, under the reference line «301, 343, 58.» in italics (= may also be sung to the tunes of hymns 301, 343 or 58). «Josiah Conder.» in italics after stanza 4. The print sets a thin space before «?», «;» and «!» («serve ?», «repine ;», «nights !»); it is closed up here. The printer's curly apostrophe is written straight («e'er»). The stanza numbers of the text column are printed without a period («2», «3», «4»); they are written «2.» … here, like the interlinear «1.», as in the other deliveries of this book. «Him» is capitalised in stanza 1 as printed («his seat» is not). Stanza 3 line 4 runs over in the print («Through toilsome days, through lonely» / «nights!»); it is one verse line here. Lines 2 and 4 of each stanza are indented in the print. Spelling, punctuation and capitals are the print's.