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.
Elect from every 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 every grace endued.
’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.
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,
In love may dwell with Thee.
Source: http://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/833#ixzz2y4Rp4xIi\\
Samuel J. Stone (1839-1900)
This hymn is well known for calling the church to be a community. The basis of the text is from the Bible when Christ tells Peter that the church will be built off of the Rock that is Himself. Written by Samuel J. Stone in 1866, “The Church’s One Foundation,” was one of the most famous of hymns written by Stone. Born in 1839 in Whitmore, Staffordshire, England, Stone was the son of Reverend William Stone. As Samuel became older, he eventually attended Charter School and Oxford College where he was ordained in 1862. Immediately after he was ordained he began serving orders at various different churches until 1870., when he joined his father in his ministries at St Paul’s in Haggerston, England. Four short years later, Samuel J. Stone followed in his fathers footsteps and took over for his father as Vicar at St. Paul’s. S. Stone served as Vicar in Haggerston until 1890, and from then until his death in 1900, he served at All-Hallow-on-the-Wall in London turning it into a safe haven for working girls and women in England. This hymn came at a very important time in the history of the church, a time where there was a great dispute of how the church should work. http://etymologyofhymns.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-churchs-one-foundation.html
ISAIAH 28:16
The Vine Vigil 