Bible Songs — Special Selections

Faithful Sentinel

Away from his home and the friends of his youth,

No. 1412
Tune FAITHFUL SENTINEL.
Words Anon.
Music Arranged.
Key A major
Singing key G major
Time 4/4
5 stanzas

Words

Away from his home and the friends of his youth,He hastened, the herald of mercy and truth;For the love of his Lord, and to seek for the lost;Soon, alas! was his fall; but he died at his post.

The stranger's eye wept, that in life's brightest bloom,One gifted so highly should sink to the tomb:For in ardor he led in the van of the host,And he fell like a soldier, he died at his post.

He wept not, himself, that his warfare was done:The battle was fought, and the victory won;But he whispered of those whom his heart loved the most,"Tell my brethren for me, that I died at my post."

He asked not a stone to be sculptured with verse;He asked not that fame should his merits rehearse;But he asked as a boon,—this he coveted most—That his brethren might know that he died at his post.

How can we the words of our brother forget?Oh, no! they are fresh in our memory yet:And example so sacred shall never be lost,We will fall in the work—we will die at our post.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: hymn number «1412» (large, left), title «FAITHFUL SENTINEL.» centred (condensed capitals with larger initials), «ARRANGED.» at the right (capitals and small capitals; the second R is a broken letter), and under the title, in italics, «(Published by request.)» (the «e» of «Published» broken). No meter, no reference line, no running head. Stanza 1 is interlinear only: «1.» and a brace enclosing two lines under system 1 — the upper sung the first time (with the first ending), the lower the second time, ending «Soon, a- (omit.) . . . . . . . . .» (italic «(omit.)» and leader dots under the first ending) — and one line under system 2 (second ending), which finishes line 4 and sings it again (see `lyrics_syllables.txt`). The verse lines are given here as lines of the poem. Syllable hyphens are joined («A - way», «her - ald», «mer - cy», «a - las»); «hastened,» is printed whole; «For the» is set without a space («Forthe») and is written with its word space. Stanzas 2-5 are printed as text in two columns below the music, then «Anon.» in italics; their numbers are printed without a full stop («2 The stranger's …») and are numbered «2.» … here. Lines broken by the column width are joined to their verse: stanza 2 line 1 («bloom,» turned over), stanza 3 line 3 («the most,» turned over), stanza 4 line 2 («re-/hearse;», hyphenated at the line end, joined as «rehearse;»), stanza 4 lines 3-4 («most—», «post.» turned over). The print sets a thin space before «;», «:», «!» and «?»; it is closed up here; apostrophes and quotation marks are written straight. Spelling, punctuation and capitals are the print's («ardor», «boon,—this», «work—we»).