Verse 1
How fervent is our Shepherd’s love,
Who follows all the sheep that rove,
Who every wanderer
Pursues with persevering grace,
As every child of Adam’s race
Ingros’d his tender care.
Verse 2
Their Shepherd rising from the dead
To each extends his friendly aid,
To each himself applies,
Dispers’d and stumbled by his death
Brings back into his fold beneath,
And leads them to the skies.
Verse 3
Tis thus he for his followers cares,
When persecution parts and tears
The flock, and scatters wide,
When daily they his lot partake,
To death deliver’d for his sake,
With Jesus crucified.
Verse 4
Beyond the rage of fiends and men
He gathers and unites again
The people of his love:
And O, that I might gather’d be,
To share thro’ all eternity
Thy glorious life above!