How Blest Are Hearts, Which Christ the Lord

How blest are hearts

which Christ the Lord

Has joined

as with a sil­ver cord

In spous­al uni­ty;

And an­im­at­ed are with love

And in­spir­ations from above

O Ho­ly Ghost

by Thee!

When an­gels sang cre­at­ion’s birth

Man

fash­ioned from the dust of earth

In Ed­en was alone;

But God made Eve from Ad­am’s side

And brought her to him as a bride

And willed them to be one.

O ho­ly wed­lock

ra­ti­fied

In Heav’n; a knot for ev­er tied

By God in para­dise;

O hap­pi­ness be­yond com­pare

What tongues of an­gels to de­clare

Thy bless­ed­ness suf­fice?

Anthems an­gel­ical were heard

When Christ

the ev­er­last­ing Word

To wed His spouse did come

And take His con­se­crat­ed bride

Cleansed by the life-blood from His side

Unto His heav’n­ly home.

At Ca­na’s feast

that heav’n­ly Guest

Did first His God­head ma­ni­fest

And wa­ter change to wine;

In wed­lock

tears of sor­row­ing earth

Are changed to wine of heav’n­ly mirth

By pow­er and love di­vine.

Mirrored in nup­ti­al pur­ity

The mar­riage of the Church we see

And Christ the Bride­groom’s love;

Angels look down

and an­thems sing

The ho­ly Dove

with gold­en wing

Sheds bless­ings from above.

Bless

ev­er bless

Thy serv­ants

Lord

Whom Thou dost join in sweet ac­cord.

The bride­groom and the bride;

In sor­row

sick­ness

and in health

In tri­bu­la­tion and in wealth

Be Thou their help and guide.

Be with them

Lord

as day by day

They with one heart to­ge­ther pray

Thy Word to­ge­ther read

Together at Thine al­tar kneel

And with Thy blood their un­ion seal

On Thee to­ge­ther feed.

May they for ever have Thee near

Making them to Thy­self more dear

And each to each in Thee;

So

when from earth­ly cares re­leased

May they at Thine own mar­riage feast

Be blest eter­nal­ly.

To Fa­ther

whose pa­ter­nal love

Sends be­ne­dict­ions from ab­ove

Eternal prais­es be;

And God the Son

in­car­nate Word

With Holy Spir­it

be ad­ored;

One God and Per­sons Three.