Bible Songs — Invitation

Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By

What means this eager, anxious throng

No. 1269
Tune JESUS OF NAZARETH PASSETH BY.
Words Emma Campbell.
Music Theo. E. Perkins, by per.
Key G major
Singing key F major
Time 6/8
6 stanzas

Words

What means this eager, anxious throngWhich moves with busy haste along,—These wondrous gath'rings day by day?What means this strange commotion, pray?In accents hushed the throng reply:"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."In accents hushed the throng reply:"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."

Who is this Jesus? Why should heThe city move so mightily?A passing stranger, has he skillTo move the multitude at will?Again the stirring notes reply:"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."Again the stirring notes reply:"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."

Jesus! 'tis he who once belowMan's pathway trod, 'mid pain and woe;And burdened ones, where'er he came,Brought out their sick, and deaf, and lame.The blind rejoiced to hear the cry:"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."The blind rejoiced to hear the cry:"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."

To-day, as then, from place to placeHis holy footprints we can trace;He pauseth at our threshold,—nay,He enters,—condescends to stay:Shall we not gladly raise the cry—"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by?"Shall we not gladly raise the cry—"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by?"

Ho! all ye heavy-laden come!Here's pardon, comfort, rest, and home;Ye wanderers from a Father's face,Return, accept his proffered grace.Ye tempted ones, there's refuge nigh:"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."Ye tempted ones, there's refuge nigh:"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."

But if you still this call refuse,And all his wondrous love abuse,Soon will he sadly from you turn,Your bitter prayer for pardon spurn."Too late! too late!" will be the cry—"Jesus of Nazareth has passed by.""Too late! too late!" will be the cry—"Jesus of Nazareth has passed by."

About this hymn

As printed As printed: no running head on p. 485 (the page opens with the hymn); hymn number «1269» (large, left), title «Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By.» centred (condensed bold capitals and small capitals: «J», «N», «P», «B» full capitals; the small-capital «O» of «of» is damaged and prints like «Θ»); under it the epigraph in two lines of roman, «"And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou son of David, / have mercy on me."—Mark 10 : 47.» (old-style figures; no comma after «Nazareth»); on the next line «EMMA CAMPBELL.» at the left (words) and «THEO. E. PERKINS, by per.» at the right (music; the name in capitals and small capitals, «by per.» in lower case). No meter, no tune name other than the title, no reference line, no copyright line (only the folio «485» under the music). All six stanzas are interlinear, numbered «1.»–«6.» before the first syllable of system 1, six lines of words between the staves of each of the four systems. Systems 3 and 4 carry the SAME words: the last two verse lines of every stanza are printed twice, once under each system, and are given twice here, as printed. Each printed line of words carries two verse lines; they are given here one verse line per line. In stanza 6 the words «has passed by.» are printed in italics, both times. The words divided under the notes are joined here («ea-ger», «bus-y», «a-long», «Je-sus», «cit-y», «might-i-ly», «be-low», «path-way», «ho-ly», «foot-prints», «par-don», «com-fort», «re-fuse», «a-buse», «won-drous», «com-mo-tion», «pass-ing», «stran-ger», «mul-ti-tude», «bur-dened», «paus-eth», «en-ters», «con-de-scends», «Fa-ther's», «Re-turn», «ac-cept», «sad-ly», «bit-ter», «re-ply», «A-gain», «stir-ring», «re-joiced», «glad-ly», «tempt-ed», «ref-uge», «Naz-a-reth», «pass-eth») — the divisions are in `lyrics_syllables.txt`; «To - day» is kept as «To-day» and «heav - y - lad - en» as «heavy-laden». The print sets «anxiousthrong» with no visible word space (stanza 1): two words, written «anxious throng». The print sets a thin space before «;», «:», «?» and «!» («woe ;», «stay :», «pray ?», «Ho !»); it is closed up here; the curly quotation marks and apostrophes are written straight («'tis», «'mid», «Man's», «Here's», «gath'rings», «where'er», «Father's», «there's»). Spelling, capitals (the pronouns «he», «his» in lower case) and punctuation are the print's.