Frances Ridley Havergal
(1836-1879)
Church of God, beloved and chosen,
Church of Christ, for whom He died,
Claim thy gifts and praise the Giver.
“Ye are washed and sanctified,”
Sanctified by God the Father,
And by Jesus Christ His Son,
And by God, the Holy Spirit,
Holy, Holy, Three in One.
By His will He sanctifieth,
By the Spirit’s power within,
By the loving hand that chasteneth,
Fruits of righteousness to win;
By His truth and by His promise,
By the Word, His gift unpriced,
By His own blood, and by union
With the risen life of Christ.
Holiness by faith in Jesus,
Not by effort of thine own;
Sin’s dominion crushed and broken
By the power of grace alone.
God’s own holiness within thee,
His own beauty on thy brow:
This shall be thy pilgrim brightness,
This thy blessèd portion now.1
He will sanctify thee wholly;
Body, spirit, soul shall be
Blameless till thy Savior’s coming
In His glorious majesty!
He hath perfected forever
Those whom He hath sanctified;
Spotless, glorious, and holy
Is the church, His chosen Bride.
- This third stanza was a favorite of Percy Gutteridge in his teaching. He quotes it in The Life and Growth of Faith (from Faith Is Substance); and twice in the series The Holy Spirit and His Emblems, where it appears in both The Sevenfold Holy Spirit and The Holy Spirit as Fire. ↩