Christ My Song - 1195
Who yonder on the desert heath - Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity
(Reginald Heber/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity.
1. "Who yonder on the desert heath,
complains in feeble tone?"
– "A pilgrim in the vale of death,
faint, bleeding, and alone!" PDF - Midi
2. "How cam'st thou to this dismal strand
of danger, grief, and shame?"
– "From blessed Sion's holy land,
by Folly led, I came!"
3. "What ruffian hand hath stripped thee bare?
Whose fury laid thee low?"
– "Sin for my footsteps twined her snare,
and Death has dealt the blow!"
4. "Can art no medicine for thy wound,
nor nature strength supply?"
– "They saw me bleeding on the ground,
and passed in silence by!"
5. "But, sufferer! is no comfort near
thy terrors to remove?"
– "There is to whom my soul was dear,
but I have scorned his love."
6. "What if his hand were nigh to save
from endless Death thy days?"
– "The soul he ransomed from the grave
should live but to his praise!"
7. "Rise then, oh rise! His health embrace,
with heavenly strength renewed;
and, such as is thy Saviour's grace,
such be thy gratitude!"
Reginald Heber, Heber's Hymns, 1870, 64-65.