Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
1 Corinthians 9:25
Words: Stephen Popovich, 2015 (public domain).
Music: Hamburg Lowell Mason, 1824. First appeared in The Boston Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music, third edition, 1825 (🔊 pdf nwc).
Sweet and abundant is this boast,
Well done, thou servant of the field.
My rights on earth I count as loss
For heaven’s hope contains my yield.
Gavest Thou me the gospel seal,
When once Thou sealed me as Thine own,
To plant where they know not of Thee,
That in Thee might this seed be grown.
This boast my flesh would still deny
If to its altar I now bend
To drink its lust or lift its pride
And wear the wreath of fallen men.
I from Thy use shall not be cast
If Thou remain my prize and shield
For then this boast will come at last,
Well done, thou servant of the field.