Bible Songs — Invitation

Something for Jesus

They brought their gifts to Jesus

No. 1287
Tune SOMETHING FOR JESUS.
Words Eben E. Rexford.
Music Joseph Garrison.
Key F major
Singing key E♭ major
Time 6/8
3 stanzas

Words

They brought their gifts to Jesus,And laid them at his feet,And love for this dear Saviour,Made ev'ry off'ring sweet;Good deeds and words of kindness,Help for the poor of earth,And not a gift among themWas thought of little worth.

Chorus.

Wouldst bring a gift to Jesus,That he will count most sweet?Say, "Lord, my heart I give thee,"And lay it at his feet.

Apart from other giversA poor wayfarer stood,He saw the gifts they offered,The poorest counted good;And he was filled with longing,A gift, tho' poor, to bring;Alas! all empty-handedHe stood before the King.

"Dear Lord," he cried in sorrow,"I know how kind thou art,Take all I have to give thee,My sinful wayward heart."Then Jesus answered softly,"Count not the gift as small,Tho' all of them are precious,Thine is the best of all."

From "Church and Prayer-Meeting Songs," by permission.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: no running head on p. 501 (the page opens with the hymn); hymn number «1287» (large, left), title «Something for Jesus.» centred (condensed bold capitals and small capitals: «S», «F», «J» full capitals; final period); under it, on one line, the epigraph «"My son, give me thine heart."—Prov. 23 : 26.» (roman, old-style figures); on the next line «EBEN E. REXFORD.» at the left (words) and «JOSEPH GARRISON.» at the right (music), both in capitals and small capitals. No meter, no tune name other than the title, no tempo word and no reference line are printed. The three stanzas are interlinear, numbered «1.» «2.» «3.» before the first syllable of system 1, three lines of words between the staves of systems 1–3; «CHORUS.» (bold capitals) stands over the head of system 4, and the chorus words are printed once, one line under each of systems 4 and 5; the chorus is sung after every stanza. Under the music, centred: «From "Church and Prayer-Meeting Songs," by permission.». Each printed line of words follows the staff, not the verse (system 1 breaks after «dear / they / to», system 2 after «Help / A / "Count»); the stanzas are given here in their eight verse lines and the chorus in four. The words divided under the notes are joined here («Je - sus», «Sav - iour», «ev - 'ry», «of - f'ring», «lit - tle», «A - part», «oth - er», «giv - ers», «way-far - er», «of - fered», «poor - est», «count - ed», «long-ing», «A - las!», «be - fore», «sin - ful», «way - ward», «an-swered», «soft-ly» → «Jesus», «Saviour», «ev'ry», «off'ring», «little», «Apart», «other», «givers», «wayfarer», «offered», «poorest», «counted», «longing», «Alas!», «before», «sinful», «wayward», «answered», «softly»); the divisions are in `lyrics_syllables.txt`. «empt - y - hand - ed» is given as «empty-handed» (the compound keeps one hyphen; the print cannot show which of its three hyphens is the word's own). The print sets a thin space before «;» («sweet ;», «good ;», «bring ;») and around the colon of the reference («23 : 26»); it is closed up here; the curly quotation marks and apostrophes are written straight («ev'ry», «off'ring», «tho'», «Tho'»). Spelling («Saviour», «tho'»), capitals (the pronouns «his», «he», «thou», «thee» in lower case; «King» with a capital) and punctuation are the print's, including «givers» and «empty-handed» without a stop at the end of their verse lines and the comma after «Saviour».