Text · full lyrics
Jesus with Thy Church abide,
Be her Savior, Lord, and Guide,
While on earth her faith is tried:
We beseech Thee, hear us.
We beseech Thee, hear us.
Keep her life and doctrine pure,
Help her patient to endure,
Trusting in Thy promise sure:
We beseech Thee, hear us.
We beseech Thee, hear us.
We beseech Thee, hear us.
We beseech Thee, hear us.
All her fettered powers release
Bid our strife and envy cease,
Grant the heav'nly gift of peace:
We beseech Thee, hear us.
We beseech Thee, hear us.
We beseech Thee, hear us.
We beseech Thee, hear us.
May she guide the poor and blind,
Seek the lost until she find,
And the broken hearted bind:
We beseech Thee, hear us.
We beseech Thee, hear us.
All that she has lost, restore,
May her strength and zel be more
Than in brightest days of yore:
We beseech Thee, hear us.
We beseech Thee, hear us.
The lyricist
Thomas Benson Pollock
Pollock studied medicine in London before taking Anglican orders in 1861, and after curacies in Leek and at Stamford Hill he gave the rest of his life to St. Alban's Mission in Birmingham, working among the city's poor beside his brother James. He came up through the high-church revival then remaking English worship, and sat for years on the committee behind Hymns Ancient and Modern, chairing it toward the end. His signature was the metrical litany — a hymn built from short petitions, each verse closing on the same sung response — and he gathered a book of them in 1870. "Jesus, with Thy Church Abide" is one of these: written for a prayer day organized by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, it first appeared in eighteen stanzas, every one ending "We beseech Thee, hear us."
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