Henry Alford

Wednesday In Easter Week, 1844

The lovely form of God's own Church It riseth in all lands, On mountain sides, in wooded vales, And by the desert sands. There is it, with its solemn aisles, A heavenly, holy thing, And round its walls lie Christian dead Blessedly slumbering. Though sects and factions rend the world, Peace is its heritage; Unchanged, though empires by it pass, The same from age to age. The hallowed form our fathers built, That hallowed form build we; Let not one stone from its own place Removèd ever be. Scoff as thou passest, if thou wilt, Thou man that hast no faith; Thou that no sorrows hast in life, Nor blessedness in death. But we will build, for all thou scoff, And cry, ``What waste is this!'' The Lord our God hath given us all, And all is therefore His. Clear voices from above sound out Their blessing on the pile; The dead beneath support our hands, And succour us the while. Yea, when we climb the rising walls Is peace and comfort given; Because the work is not of earth, But hath its end in Heaven.