Christ My Song - 837
A homeless Stranger amongst us came - Bands of love
(Frances Bevan/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
"Bands of love"
Ruth 1,16-17.
1. A homeless Stranger amongst us came
to this land of death and mourning;
he walked in a path of sorrow and shame,
through insult, and hate, and scorning. (PDF - Midi)
2. A Man of sorrows, of toil and tears,
and outcast Man and a lonely;
but he looked on me, and through endless years
him must I love – him only.
3. Then from this sad and sorrowful land,
from this land of tears he departed;
but the light of his eyes and the touch of his hand
had left me broken-hearted.
4. And I clave to him as he turned his face
from the land that was mine no longer –
the land I had loved in the ancient days,
ere I knew the love that was stronger.
5. And I would abide where he abode,
and follow his steps for ever;
his people my people, his God my God,
in the land beyond the river.
6. And where he died would I also die,
far dearer a grave beside him
than a kingly palace amongst living men,
the place which they denied him.
7. Then afar an afar did I follow him on,
to the land where he was going –
to the depths of glory beyond the sun,
where the golden fields were glowing –
8. The golden harvest of endless joy,
the joy he had sown in weeping;
how can I tell the blessed employ,
the songs of that glorious reaping!
9. The recompense sweet, the full reward,
which the Lord his God has given;
at rest beneath the wings of the Lord,
at home in the courts of heaven.
P. G.
Frances Bevan, Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso and others 1, 1899, 102-103.