Hymns, #945

The Kingdom - Its Outward Appearance

Eng/Kor:945  Chin:750  Span:430  Rus:-  Tag:-  Fra:-  Por:474

Lyrics:Witness Lee
Music:Thomas B. Southgate
Meter:8.8.8.8.

Hymns using same tune:

#493, #674

 
 1 

The Son of God has come to sow

Himself, the seed of life, in man,

That thru Himself God's Kingdom grow

And thus fulfill th' eternal plan.

 
 2 

He was the only grain of wheat

Whence many grains have been produced

To be the Kingdom's children meet,

Thru whom God's reign is introduced.

 
 3 

But Satan, enemy of God,

Sowed many tares among the wheat,

The Kingdom's children to confuse,

And awful damage to create.

 
 4 

'Tis by this subtle work of his,

The mixing of the tares with wheat,

The Kingdom in appearance is

Abnormal and grotesquely great.

 
 5 

The Kingdom should as mustard be,

A little herb, yet good for food,

But it has changed into a "tree,"

A system of great magnitude.

 
 6 

Instead of being good for food,

A lodge of "birds" it has become;

'Tis now a place where evil men

And evil spirits make their home.

 
 7 

A great religion of the world

Its outward form to us reveals,

Including pagan, evil things,

As leaven mingled with the meal.

 
 8 

A system of the world as such,

It thus has changed in outward form;

By evil things which it imbibes,

Corruption inwardly doth swarm.

 
 9 

But something hidden God doth seek,

As "pearl" and "treasure in the field";

As such the Lord would us transform

That pearl and treasure be revealed.

 
 10 

'Tis hidden from vast Christendom

And from the Kingdom's great facade,

Yet in its full reality

'Tis transformed like to Christ and God.

 
 11 

Lord, separate us from the "tares,"

And save us from the monstrous "tree";

From all the "leaven" purge us now

That we may purely be of Thee.

 
 12 

May Thou in life transform our souls

That we as precious stones may be,

Meet for Thy house to build and in

Thy Kingdom's full reality.

 
Hymn #945