The Christian — Guidance and Protection

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord

No. 781
Metre 11s.
Tune GOSHEN.
Words George Keith.
Music German.
Key G major
Time 2/2
5 stanzas

Words

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,Is laid for your faith in his excellent word!What more can he say than to you he hath said,Who unto the Saviour for refuge have fled?

"Fear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed;For I am thy God, and will still give thee aidI 'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

"When through the deep waters I call thee to go,The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply;The flame shall not hurt thee; I only designThy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

"The soul that on Jesus doth lean for repose,I will not, I will not, desert to his foes;That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,I 'll never—no never—no never forsake."

About this hymn

As printed As printed: running head «THE CHRISTIAN—GUIDANCE AND PROTECTION.»; hymn number «781» (large), tune name «GOSHEN. 11s.» centred over the music (condensed display capitals), «GERMAN.» at the right (capitals and small capitals). Stanza 1 is interlinear, with «1.» before «How»: system 1 = verse line 1 and the start of line 2 («Is laid for your»), system 2 = the rest of line 2 and verse line 3; verse line 4 is printed in italics as a second line under m5–m9, preceded by «D. S.—» («D. S.—Who un - to the» under system 1, «Sav - iour for ref - uge have fled?» under system 2), and is sung there after the «D. S.» at the end of system 2 (the music returns to the segno before «Is» and ends at «Fine.» after «word!» / «fled?»). Stanza 1 below is assembled in the order sung. «cellent» is set unbroken under two notes; «Whatmore» is printed with almost no space. Between the music and stanza 2 the italic reference line «783, 512.» (= the words may also be sung to the tunes of hymns 783 and 512). Stanzas 2–5 follow as text in the left column, numbered «2»–«5» without a full stop (numbered «2.» etc. here like stanza 1); each opens with a double quotation mark (the words of God), closed only after «forsake.» at the end of stanza 5; «George Keith.» in italics after stanza 5. Lines too long for the column are broken and the run-over indented («dis- / mayed;», «thee / aid», «cause / thee to stand,», «thee / to go,», «to / bless,», «pathway / shall lie,», «sup- / ply;», «de- / sign», «re- / fine.», «endeavor / to shake,»); each verse line is joined here as one line, and words divided at the line end («dismayed», «supply», «design», «refine») are written whole. Stanza 2, line 2 ends «aid» with no punctuation in the print (kept). «I 'll» is printed with a space before the apostrophe (kept). The print sets a thin space before «;», «:», «!» and «?»; it is closed up here; quotation marks and apostrophes are written straight. Spelling («Saviour», «endeavor»), punctuation and capitals are the print's.