Hymns - Pray for the Church - Текст песни

Pray for the Church, afflicted and oppressed,
for all who suffer for the gospel's sake,
that Christ may show us how to serve them best
in that one kingdom Satan cannot shake.
But how much more than us they have to give,
who by their dying show us how to live.

Pray for Christ's dissidents, who daily wait,
as Jesus waited in the olive grove,
the unjust trial, the pre-determined fate,
the world's contempt for reconciling love.
Shall all they won for us, at such a cost,
be by our negligence or weakness lost?

Pray that if times of testing should lay bare
what sort we are, who call ourselves his own,
we may be counted worthy then to wear,
with quiet fortitude, Christ's only crown:
The crown that in his saints he wears again
the crown of thorns that signifies his reign.