The Church’s Desolation

I am just going to place this here with very little comment. This is among my favorite “sad but true” songs.

The Church’s Desolation

1. Well may thy servants mourn, my God,
The Church’s desolation;
The state of Zion calls aloud
For grief and lamentation.
Once she was all alive to thee
And thousands were converted,
But now a sad reverse we see,
Her glory is departed.

2. Her pastors love to live at ease
They covet wealth and honor;
And while they seek such things as these,
They bring reproach upon her.
Such worthless objects they pursue
Warmly and undiverted;
The church they lead and ruin, too—
Her glory is departed.

3. Her private members walk no more
As Jesus Christ has taught them;
Riches and fashion they adore,
With these the world has bought them.
The Christian name they still retain
Absurdly and false-hearted;
And while they in the church remain,
Her glory is departed.

4. And has religion left the Church
Without a trace behind her?
Where shall I go, where shall I search,
That I once more may find her?
Adieu, ye proud, ye light and gay,
I’ll seek the brokenhearted,
Who weep when they of Zion say,
Her glory is departed.

5. Some few, like good Elijah stand,
While thousands have revolted,
In earnest for the heav’nly land
They never yet have halted.
With such religion doth remain,
For they are not perverted;
Oh! may they all through them regain
The glory that’s departed.

The tune was written or arranged by Jesse T. White for the 1844 Sacred Harp. The author of the words is unknown. The closest we have to an attribution, when in 1865 an unnamed “Sister” wrote to the Southern Christian Advocate (Macon, Georgia, December 7, 1865, p. 1) that it “was written by the late Rev. William Arnold.” Oh! if the author could only see us now!