Tim Blickhan - Covenant - текст песни (слова)

From muddy fields and wire mills, shops tucked beside the railroad tracks,
 the people of old photographs would come.
 
 Unused to silk and ribbon--builders, come to thank a worker Christ,
 remake a church where all might be made one:
 
 Where native-son and runaway, poor wanderer and refugee--
 the rich and ragged find an open door.
 
 Not just ourselves-but seekers sent by One who gave the stars their light--
 no sister turned away, but welcomed in.
 
 A child in the dark, the least of these whom Jesus calls his own
 belongs to us--we hurt to bring him home.
 
 What few could save, they gave away, and what they gave
 we used to build. We are the heirs they blessed but could not see.
 
 The family is not complete--our tables yet have empty chairs,
 and our story so many pages blank.
 
 Friend, help us try to build the realm where love restores the broken,
 it bears new light, within a church where all might be made one.
 
 --JOSEPH GASTIGER
 
 My life flows on in endless song; above earth's lamentation,
 I hear the sweet, though far-off hymn that hails a new creation.
 Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear the music ringing;
 It finds an echo in my soul--how can I keep from singing?
 
 --ROBERT LOWRY, 1869
 Tune: ENDLESS SONG, attrib. to Robert Lowry