The Church — Lord's Supper

Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to face

No. 1122
Words Horatius Bonar.
Singing key E♭ major
4 stanzas

Sung to FREEPORT (hymn 249)

Words

Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to face;Here would I touch and handle things unseen;Here grasp with firmer hand eternal grace,And all my weariness upon thee lean.

Here would I feed upon the bread of God;Here drink with thee the royal wine of heaven;Here would I lay aside each earthly load,Here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiven.

Too soon we rise; the symbols disappear;The feast, though not the love, is passed and gone;The bread and wine remove, but thou art here—Nearer than ever—still my Shield and Sun.

Feast after feast thus comes and passes by;Yet, passing, points to the glad feast above,Giving sweet foretastes of the festal joy,The Lamb's great bridal feast of bliss and love.

About this hymn

As printed Words only. As printed: hymn number «1122» (large) in the left column below hymn 1121's «Edward H. Bickersteth.», with the italic reference line «249, 100.» on the same line (= sing to the tune of hymn 249 or 100, both «10s.»; no meter is printed with this hymn; the referred tunes and the verse are 10s., 10.10.10.10). Stanzas 1, 2 and the first two lines of stanza 3 at the foot of the left column; the last two lines of stanza 3 (unnumbered) at the top of the right column, then stanza 4 and «Horatius Bonar.» in italics, right-aligned. Stanzas numbered «1»–«4» without a period (written «1.»–«4.» here, as in the other deliveries of this book). The first word «HERE» is set in capitals and small capitals; written «Here». Lines 2 and 4 of each stanza are indented in the print (reproduced here). Lines too long for the column run over into an indented second line («things un- / seen;», «wine of / heaven;», «is passed / and gone;», «thou art / here—», «bliss and / love.»): each verse is one line here, and «un- / seen» (a word broken only by the line end) is joined. The print sets a thin space before «;»; it is closed up here. Apostrophes are written straight («Lamb's»).