Scripture Verse

The love of Christ constraineth us. 2 Corinthians 5:14

Introduction

Words: Co­ra B. Ev­ans, cir­ca 1895.

Music: Ed­win C. So­ley, 1911 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Ev­ans or So­ley (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Evans wrote her hymn, The love of Christ con­strain­eth for the Wo­man’s Aux­il­ia­ry to the Board of For­eign and Do­mes­tic Mis­sions of the Ca­na­di­an Church, and the text on which is based is the mot­to of that or­ga­ni­za­tion. It was first pub­lished in The Let­ter, the or­gan of the Aux­ili­ary, when Mrs. Ev­ans was ed­it­ing the Mont­re­al di­vi­sion, in the nine­ties. It ap­peared ano­ny­mous­ly at first, and still lat­er in The Book of Com­mon Praise the au­thor’s name is giv­en.

Carl Fowl­er Price

The Chris­tian Ad­vo­cate, No­vem­ber 28, 1912

Lyrics

The love of Christ con­strain­eth;
O let the watch­word ring
Till all the world ad­or­ing
To Je­sus’ feet it bring.
Till north and south the king­doms
Shall own His glo­ri­ous sway,
And east and west the na­tions
Rejoice to see His day.

Refrain

The love of Christ con­strain­eth;
O let the watch­word ring,
Till all the world ad­or­ing
To Je­sus’ feet it bring.

The love of Christ con­strain­eth;
And we who trust His Word,
Who know and feel its pow­er
To glad­der ser­vice stirred,
Shall nei­ther faint nor fal­ter,
Though dark the night and long,
And weak our hands that la­bor;
His strength shall make us strong.

Refrain

The love of Christ con­strain­eth;
Then let us work and pray,
And watch the glad ap­pear­ing
Of that tri­um­phal day,
When Fa­ther, Son and Spi­rit,
By ev­ery tongue con­fessed,
All earth his broad do­min­ion
In His dear love shall rest.

Refrain