According to John Julian, this hymn is a compilation of two hymns which first appeared in the appendix to the 6th edition of Cotterill’s Selection of Psalms and Hymns in 1815. The majority of the hymn is derived from Charles Wesley’s “Come, Let Us Join Our Friends” which was first published in Funeral Hymns, 2nd Series in 1759. The first verse of this hymn is derived from Isaac Watts’s hymn “Not To The Terrors Of The Lord” which was first published in Hymns and Spiritual Songs in 1709.
This is the text of this hymn as it appears in Church Hymns (1871) where it is listed under General Hymns:
The saints on earth, and those above,
But one communion make;
Joined to their Lord in bonds of love,
All of His grace partake
One family we dwell in Him,
One Church, above, beneath,
Though now divided by the stream,
The narrow stream of death.
One army of the living God
To His command we bow:
Part of the host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now.
Lo, thousands to their endless home
Are swiftly borne away;
And we are to the margin come,
And soon must launch as they.
Lord Jesu, be our constant Guide:
Then, when the word is given,
Bid death’s cold flood its waves divide,
And bring us safe to heaven. Amen.
Words: Composite of hymns by Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley, publ. 1815.
Tune (Church Hymn): “Dundee” Andro Hart’s Psalter, 1615.
Meter: 8.6.8.6.
Saint Augustine's Lyre 