The Highest and the Holiest Place

lyricist: Henry Alford, 1844
Composer: Ralph Courteville, 1696

The high­est and the ho­li­est place

Guards not the heart from sin;

The Church that safe­st seems with­out

May har­bor foes with­in.

Thus in the small and chos­en band

Beloved above the rest

One fell from his apos­tle­ship

A trai­tor-soul unb­lest.

But not the great de­signs of God

Man’s sins shall ov­er­throw;

Another wit­ness to the truth

Forth to the lands shall go.

Righteous

O Lord

are all Thy ways;

Long as the worlds en­dure

From foes with­out and foes with­in

Thy Church shall stand se­cure.

The soul that sin­neth

it shall die;

But Thine shall nev­er fail;

The word of grace no less shall sound

The truth no less pre­vail.

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