Scripture Verse

I will make thy name remembered. Psalm 45:17

Introduction

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Horatius Bonar
1808–1889

Words: Ho­ra­ti­us Bo­nar, 1857, alt. in Gos­pel Hymns Nos. 1 to 6 Com­plete, ed­it­ed by Ira San­key, James Mc­Gra­na­han & George C. Steb­bins (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois & Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Big­low & Main and John Church, 1894), num­ber 534. An ear­li­er ver­sion, with mu­sic by Phil­ip Bliss, is in The Prize, by George F. Root (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Root & Ca­dy, 1870), pag­es 126–27. Al­so see What I Have Done.

Music: Ira D. San­key, 1891 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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Ira D. Sankey
1840–1908

Origin of the Hymn

Dr. Ho­ra­ti­us Bonar, of Ed­in­burgh, wrote the words of this hymn, which I set to mu­sic in 1891. I sang it as a so­lo in the Tab­er­na­cle in Lon­don at the fun­er­al of my friend, C. H. Spur­geon, the great Lon­don preach­er.

Sankey, pp. 334–35

Lyrics

Fading away like the stars of the morning,
Losing their light in the glorious sun—
Thus would we pass from the earth and its toiling,
Only remembered by what we have done.

Refrain

Only remembered, only remembered,
Only remembered by what we have done;
Thus would we pass from the earth and its toiling,
Only remembered by what we have done.

Shall we be missed though by others succeeded,
Reaping the fields we in springtime have sown?
No, for the sowers may pass from their labors,
Only remembered by what they have done.

Refrain

Only the truth that in life we have spoken,
Only the seed that on earth we have sown;
These shall pass onward when we are forgotten,
Fruits of the harvest and what we have done.

Refrain