| Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. | | | Hymns of the Eastern Church (1862).
VI. “O happy band of pilgrims” | | By John Mason Neale (1818–1866) |
| | (From “S. Joseph of the Studium”)
O HAPPY band of pilgrims, | |
| If onward ye will tread | |
| With Jesus as your Fellow | |
| To Jesus as your Head! | |
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| O happy, if ye labour | 5 |
| As Jesus did for men: | |
| O happy, if ye hunger | |
| As Jesus hunger’d then! | |
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| The Cross that Jesus carried | |
| He carried as your due: | 10 |
| The crown that Jesus weareth | |
| He weareth it for you. | |
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| The Faith by which ye see Him, | |
| The Hope, in which ye yearn, | |
| The Love that through all troubles | 15 |
| To Him alone will turn,— | |
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| What are they, but vaunt-couriers | |
| To lead you to His Sight? | |
| What are they, save the effluence | |
| Of Uncreated Light? | 20 |
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| The trials that beset you, | |
| The sorrows ye endure, | |
| The manifold temptations | |
| That Death alone can cure,— | |
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| What are they, but His jewels | 25 |
| Of right celestial worth? | |
| What are they but the ladder, | |
| Set up to Heav’n on earth? | |
| |
| O happy band of pilgrims, | |
| Look upward to the skies;— | 30 |
| Where such a light affliction | |
| Shall win you such a prize! | | | | |
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