The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation by water and the Word:
From heaven He came and sought her to be His holy Bride;
With His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.
Elect from every nation, yet one o’er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses, partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses, with every grace endued.
Though with a scornful wonder men see her sore oppressed,
Though foes would rent asunder, the rock where she doth rest,
Yet saints their watch are keeping; their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.
’Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation of peace for evermore;
Till, with the vision glorious, her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious shall be the Church at rest.
Amen!