God has a Church

God Has a Church

It is not the great cathedral,
Neither is it the national establishment
Neither is it the various denominations.
It is the people
who love God
and keep his commandments.

“Where two or three are gathered
in my name,
There I am in the midst of them.”
[Matthew 18: 20]

Where Christ is among the humble few,
This is Christ’s church,
for the presence of the high and Holy One Who inhabiteth eternity
CAN ALONE CONSTITUTE
A CHURCH
[The Upward Look, Page 315]

The church has one Foundation
Samuel J. Stone, pub.1866 (1839-1900)
arr. and v. 3-5 by Charles W. Naylor, 1907

based on

1. The church has one foundation,
   ’Tis Jesus Christ her Lord;
   She is His new creation,
   Through water by the word.
   From heav’n He came and sought her
   To be His holy bride;
   With His own blood He bought her,
   And for her life He died.
2. 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.
3. Long with a scornful wonder
   Men saw her sore oppressed,
   By schisms rent asunder,
   By heresies distressed.
   Yet saints their watch were keeping
   To hail a brighter day,
   When God should stop their weeping,
   Take their reproach away.
4. The evening sun is shining,
   The cloudy day is past;
   The time of their repining
   Is at an end at last.
   The voice of God is calling
   To unity again;
   Division walls are falling,
   With all the creeds of men.
5. Back to the one foundation,
   From sects and creeds made free,
   Come saints of every nation
   To blessed unity.
   Once more the ancient glory
   Shines as in days of old,
   And tells the wondrous story—
   One God, one faith, one fold.