For Epiphany

Words: "Jesu dulcis memoria," Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153)
Translation: Edward Caswell, 1849

Music: "St. Mary"

Meter: CM

Source: William Sterndale Bennett and Otto Goldschmidt, eds., The Chorale Book For England. Congregational Edition. (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1863, Supp. 1865), #213.

1. Jesus, the very thought of thee
    With sweetness fills the breast;
But sweeter far Thy face to see,
    And in Thy presence rest.

2. No voice can sing, no heart can frame,
    Nor can the memory find
A sweeter sound than Thy blest name,
    O Saviour of mankind!

3. O Hope of every contrite heart,
    O Joy of all the meek,
To those who fall, how kind Thou art,
    How good to those who seek!

4. But what to those who find! Ah! this
    Nor tongue nor pen can show;
The love of Jesus, what it is
    None but His loved ones know.

5. Jesus, our only Joy be Thou,
    As Thou our Crown wilt be;
Jesus, be Thou our glory now
    And through eternity.

Sheet Music from William Sterndale Bennett and Otto Goldschmidt, eds., The Chorale Book For England. Congregational Edition. (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1863, Supp. 1865), #213.

Sheet Music "Lambeth" by Wilhelm Schulthes, 1871, from Henry Sloane Coffin and Ambrose White Vernon, eds., Hymns of the Kingdom of God. New York: The A. S. Barnes Company, 1910, #101.