One of the songs we will sing this Sunday is The Church’s One Foundation by Samuel J. Stone. It is a song we are familiar with except for the two verses (3 and 4) not in our hymnal. The lyrics to this song provide a great encouragement to our faith and fellowship especially as we have just worked our way through the book of Acts and saw how the early church faithfully endured trials in the grace of Christ. Below I have provided all six verses and highlighted verses 3 and 4.

1 The church's one Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord;

she is His new creation, by water and 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 ev'ry 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 ev'ry grace endued.

3 Tho' with a scornful wonder, men see her sore oppressed,

by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed,

yet saints their watch are keeping, their cry goes up, "How long?"

And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.

4 The church shall never perish! Her dear Lord, to defend,

to guide, sustain, and cherish, is with her to the end;

tho' there be those that hate her and false sons in her pale,

against the foe or traitor she ever shall prevail.

5 'Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war,

she waits the consummation of peace for evermore;

till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blest,

and the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.

6 Yet she on earth hath union with God the Three in One,

and mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won.

O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we,

like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with Thee.

Most songs today do not carry this kind of weight. Most songs focus so much on personal feelings rather than eternal truths and realities. In verse 5 the church is called the great church victorious. This designation makes more sense in light of verse 4 in which we are told that the church's victory comes from Her dear Lord and in Her dear Lord she ever shall prevail over every foe or traitor. Why don't we sing this verse or even verse 3? In the end, I find verses 1, 2, 5, and 6 to make more sense in light of verses 3 and 4. What are your thoughts?

Grace and Peace,

PJ