Christ My Song - 1056
This is thy love, my God! - Lost and Found
(Hannah K. Burlingham/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
Lost and Found.
(Luke 15.)
1. This is thy love, my God!
joy never-ending I in thee begin.
Thou sawest me, afar from thine abode:
thou hadst compassion; thou hast brought me in. PDF - Midi
2. It was one great surprise
along the way, beneath that noonday sun,
since first I faltered forth, "I will arise!"
and groaned, "I am not fit to be a son!"
3. Wrapped to my Father's heart,
I felt his kiss, ere I could speak my shame:
love, acting out its own amazing part,
me, in my guilt, my ruin, overcame.
4. Thou didst provide the robe;
didst tell thy servants to bring forth the best:
the ring, the shoes, thy gift upon the road,
prepared me, home returning, for thy rest.
5. Oh, it is holy ground!
Nought that defiles can ever touch me more;
thy lost one, once the prodigal, is found;
my dark distrust, the famine time, is o'er.
6. Now is the banquet spread;
the fatted calf, reserved for me, is killed;
I – perishing erewhile for want of bread –
sit at thy feast, my cup by thee o'erfilled.
7. Thy festival I share!
where guests, at home in all thine own delight,
with symphonies, with choral dance, declare
thee in thy grace, thy glory – Love and Light!
Hannah K. Burlingham, Wayside Songs, 1901, 61-62.