This anonymous text for today's double feast was first published in A Book of Church Hymns (1865), which was generally known as Bosworth's Church Hymns, and shortly thereafter in The Year of Praise (1867) which was compiled by Henry Alford for Canterbury Cathedral. Like Alford, I've left out the final rather generic doxological stanza of the original.
O Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth,
The Life -- the Crown of all
Who here on earth confess your Name;
O hear us when we call!
We bring to mind with grateful joy
Your servants, who of old
Withstood the trials of the world
And now your face behold;
Who sought on earth the joys of prayer,
And that communion knew
Which saints and angels share above
With those who seek it too.
Vouchsafe us, Lord, we pray, that now
To us it may be giv'n,
Like them to live and die in you,
And with you, rise to heav'n.
Anonymous, 1865; alt.
Tune: GERONTIUS (C.M.)
John Bacchus Dykes, 1868
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