1. A church without apostles,Or prophets, or the gifts,Is like a ship at ocean,That with the current drifts.Without a chart or compass,Or rudder to direct,Soon on the shoals and breakers,She hopelessly is wrecked.
2. Like buildings on the sand built,Uncertain, unsecure,Which can but for a seasonThe beating storms endure;Or like a body human,With members all disjoined,Deprived of form and beauty,Its Author had designed.
3. A church without communion,In Christ her living head,Is likened to a body,Without the Spirit—dead;It cannot ask for wisdom,Or knowledge of his ways,If he revealeth nothing,In these the latter days.
4. And if his professed disciples,The signs do not receive,What evidence have they thatThe gospel they believe?If all these ancient landmarksAre lost or done away,Who then have testimonyThey’re in the narrow way?