A church without apostles
Author: Thomas W. Smith
Composer: Unknown
Languages (2)
This song text has been indexed at SingPraises.net in the following languages:
- English: A church without apostles
- German: Eine Kirche ohne Gaben
- All Languages →
Copyright status of original text
This text was first published in English, in 1870 or earlier.
Public domain
Earliest source indexed at SingPraises.net: The Saints’ Harp (RLDS) (1870), 1074.
Representative lyrics
English (Original Language)
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 season The 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 that The gospel they believe? If all these ancient landmarks Are lost or done away, Who then have testimony They’re in the narrow way?