Old Melodies

Mark that pilgrim—lowly bending

No. 1140
Tune MARK THAT PILGRIM.
Words Anon.
Music Arranged.
Key E-flat major
Singing key E♭ major
Time 6/4
5 stanzas

Words

Mark that pilgrim—lowly bending,At the shrine of prayer ascending,Praise and sighs together blendingFrom his lips in mournful strain;Glowing with sincere contrition,And with childlike, blest submission,Ever riseth this petition:—"Jesus, come,—O come to reign."

List again;—the low earth sigheth,And the blood of martyrs criethFrom its bosom, where there liethMillions upon millions slain:—"Lord, how long ere, thy word given,All the wicked shall be drivenFrom the earth by bolts of heaven?Jesus, come,—O come to reign."

Kingdoms now are reeling, falling;Nations lie in woe appalling,On their sages vainly callingAll these wonders to explain;While the slain around are lying,God's own little flock are sighing,And in secret places crying,"Jesus, come,—O come to reign."

Here the wicked live securely,Of to-morrow boasting surely,While from those who 're walking purely,They extort dishonest gain:Yea, the meek are burdened, driven;Want and care to them are given;But they lift the cry to heaven,"Jesus, come,—O come to reign."

Christian, cheer thee; land is nearing;Still be hopeful, nothing fearing;Soon, in majesty appearing,You 'll behold the Lamb once slain:O how joyful then to hear him,While all nations shall revere him,Saying to his flock who fear him,"I have come—on earth to reign!"

About this hymn

As printed As printed: running head «MISCELLANEOUS—OLD MELODIES.» (first page of the Old Melodies, CONTENTS 1140–1190; the words «OLD MELODIES» are underlined by hand in this exemplar); hymn number «1140» (large), tune name «MARK THAT PILGRIM.» centred over the music (condensed capitals and small capitals), «ARRANGED.» at the right (capitals and small capitals); no meter and no reference line are printed. Stanza 1 is interlinear, one line per system, with «1.» before «Mark»: system 1 = verse lines 1–3, system 2 = verse lines 4–6; verse line 7 is printed in italics as a second line under the end of system 1, preceded by «D. S.—», and verse line 8 in italics, with its quotation marks, as a second line under the start of system 2; they are sung there after the «D. S.» at the end of system 2 (the music returns to the segno over «Praise and sighs» and ends at «Fine.» after «strain;»). Stanza 1 below is assembled in the order sung. Stanzas 2–5 follow as text in two columns (2–3 left, 4–5 right), numbered «2»–«5» without a full stop (numbered «2.»–«5.» here like stanza 1); lines 4 and 8 of each stanza are indented in the print. The last line of stanza 5 is printed in italics; «Anon.» in italics after stanza 5. The print sets a thin space before «;», «:» and «?» («again ;», «slain :—», «heaven ?»); it is closed up here. «who 're» and «You 'll» are set with a space before the apostrophe and are kept so; curly quotes and apostrophes are written straight. In stanza 4 the mark after «burdened» prints as a dot without the comma's tail (damaged sort, read as a comma). Spelling, punctuation and capitals are the print's («to-morrow»).