Waiting for Christ

Ye servants of the Lord

No. 810
Metre S. M.
Tune EL KADER.
Words Philip Doddridge.
Music Unknown.
Key D major
Singing key C major
Time 4/4
4 stanzas

Words

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Ye servants of the Lord,Each in his office wait;Observant of his heavenly word,And watchful at his gate.

Let all your lamps be bright,And trim the golden flame;Gird up your loins as in his sight;His coming thus proclaim.

Watch, 'tis your Lord's command,And while we speak, he's near;Mark the first signal of his hand,And ready all appear.

O, happy servant he,In such a posture found!He shall his Lord with rapture see,And be with honor crowned.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: running head «WAITING FOR CHRIST—CLOSING WORK.»; hymn number «810» (large), tune name «EL KADER. S. M.» centred over the music (condensed capitals and small capitals), «UNKNOWN.» at the right (capitals and small capitals). Stanza 1 is interlinear, between the staves, with «1.» before «Ye»: «1. Ye serv - ants of the Lord, Each in his of - fice wait; Ob - serv - ant of his heavenly word,» under system 1 and «And watchful at his gate;» under system 2; the music then sings the last two lines again, and in the repeat the treble staff and the bass staff sing them in different rhythms, each with its own line of words («Ob - serv - ant of his heavenly word, And watch - ful at his gate.» for the treble staff and, below it, «Ob - serv - ant of his heavenly word, And watchful at his gate.» for the bass staff) — the stanza below gives the four verse lines once, as a poem («heavenly» and «watchful» are printed as one word under their two notes). Under the music line 4 ends first with «gate;» and, in the repeat, with «gate.»; the poem keeps the final reading. The reference line «558, 30, 89.» in italic figures stands centred over stanza 2 (sing also to the tunes of hymns 558, 30 and 89). Stanzas 2–4 are printed as text in the left column below the music, numbered «2»–«4» without periods (written «2.»–«4.» here, as in the other deliveries of this book); lines 2 and 4 are indented. «Philip Doddridge.» in italics after stanza 4. The print sets a thin space before «;» and «!» («wait ;», «gate ;», «flame ;», «sight ;», «near ;», «found !»); it is closed up here. The apostrophes of «'tis», «Lord's» and «he's» are the printer's curly ones, written straight. Spelling («honor»), punctuation and capitals are the print's.