Christ My Song - 578
Could ye not watch?
(Horatius Bonar/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
Could ye not watch?
1. Could ye not watch
one hour, one hour with me.
Beloved, in this solitude,
in my deep agony?
Could ye not watch?
Could ye not give to me
that which my human spirit craves,
your human sympathy? PDF - Midi
2. How will ye watch
in the world's dazzling day;
in its hot slumb'rous atmosphere,
when I am far away?
How will ye watch
in after days alone,
when left without a master here,
lover and friend all gone?
3. If sleep ye will
in this Gethsemane,
poor watchers with an absent Lord
will ye not elsewhere be?
Why sleep ye now?
Beloved, rise and pray;
he that betrayeth is at hand:
watch, then, while watch ye may!
4. The hour and power
of darkness now is come;
the Shepherd smitten is at length,
and ye, the sheep, must roam.
What! sleep ye now,
children of light and day?
In ease and sloth do ye thus fling
your dying hours away?
5. Oh watch and pray,
lest enemies assail,
and, when the evil days draw on,
your faith give way and fail.
Watch, then, and pray!
See the dark tempter's snare!
He lurks to smite, or to seduce;
oh watch, then, unto prayer!
6. He comes, he smiles,
as angel of the light,
yet ruler of the darkness he,
and prince of this world's night.
He comes, he speaks!
And still the ancient lie
is on his lips, to lure and cheat, –
"Ye shall not surely die."
7. God of this world,
he decks his kingdom well;
it looks all pure and beautiful,
seen through his radiant spell.
As light shuts out
each everlasting star,
so does the light of his false noon
the worlds that shine afar.
8. Cheat not thyself;
miss not the one true day;
the end of all things is at hand,
oh wake, and watch, and pray!
Cheat not thyself;
miss not the one true day;
the end of all things is at hand,
oh wake, and watch, and pray!
Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope III, 1878, 71-73. Repetition of 8,1-4 added in 8,5-8.