Rise Up Oh Men of God

[DaveW]

G'day folks.

I was wondering if any of you could help me find some alternative lyrics to the middle two verses of this hymn?

The first and last are good, but the middle two are simply not Scriptural, and I was wondering if any of you have come across better verses to replace them.

 

Rise up, O men of God!

Have done with lesser things;

Give heart and soul and mind and strength

To serve the King of Kings

 

Rise up, O men of God!

His kingdom tarries long;

Bring in the day of brotherhood

And end the night of wrong.

 

Rise up O men of God!

The Church for you doth wait,

Her strength unequal to her task;

Rise up and make her great!

 

Lift High the cross of Christ!

Tread where His feet hath trod;

As brothers of the Son of Man,

Rise up, O men of God.

 

You can see from this that the First is excellent, the Last is acceptable, but the middle two are both wrapped in Kingdom theology and universal church.

I would love to sing this as a Quartet piece, and have found a good arrangement, but I have to change the middle two verses, and leaving them out is not really an option for it will upset the arrangement I have.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

(If anyone wants to argue about the doctrinal issue I have with it, please start another thread - This is looking for information and I don't want that request lost in argument. Thanks for your understanding.)

 

[Alan]

29 minutes ago, DaveW said:

Rise up, O men of God!

His kingdom tarries long;  The Kingdom is so great!

Bring in the day of brotherhood Bring in the day of Rest

And end the night of wrong. And end the night of strife.

 

Rise up O men of God!

The Church for you doth wait, The Lord for you doth wait,

Her strength unequal to her task; His strength is equal to the task;

Rise up and make her great! Rise up and make Him great!

Dave,

I've never written lyrics to a song before so this is my first try.

Any thoughts?

Alan

[DaveW]

The second of yours looks like a good option, the first needs a bit of work.

I was not actually thinking about re-writing it ourselves, but it works for me!

I just assumed that I was unlikely to have been the first to have a problem with the doctrine there, and that someone else would have already fixed it.

 

Got me thinking now.....

Rise up, O men of God!

The work to do is great;

The night will very soon be come

The harvest will not wait.

 

And another....

 

Rise up, O men of God!

Awaken to your task

The souls of men are bound for Hell

The judgement cometh fast

 

By the way - the verses I have included here were actually two separate posts, posted as the thoughts came together - the forum software "merged" them together, I assume because I posted three times in succession????????????

Edited July 23, 2016 by DaveW