Now At The Lamb's Imperial Feast

Representative Text

1 Now at the Lamb’s imperial feast,
In robes of snowy whiteness dressed,
The Red Sea past, high songs we sing
Of triumph to th’anointed King.

2 For us His charity divine
The blood-cup drank of bitter wine:
For us His limbs extended lay,
A sacrifice for love to slay.

3 With blood the sprinkled door posts red
Th’avenging angel sees with dread:
Apart the startled waves divide,
Pours o’er the foe the refluent tide.

4 Now Christ our Passover we claim:
The same the sacrifice; the same,
Pure to the pure of heart and dear,
Th’unleavened bread of truth sincere.

5 O Thou, true sacrifice from Heav’n,
To whom the key of hell is giv’n,
By whom the thralls of death unchained,
By whom the prize of life regained!

6 Victor of hell’s infernal holds,
His trophies Christ revived unfolds;
And to the heavens’ admiring gaze
The captive king of night displays.

7 That with delight our hearts may burn,
Lord, at Thy paschal feast’s return,
O, dead to sin, thy servants give
New born in righteousness to live.

8 Be the Almighty Father praised;
The Son, who from the dead was raised;
And, the full Godhead to complete,
The Holy Ghost, the Paraclete!

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #11937

Translator: Richard Mant

Mant, Richard D.D., son of the Rev. Richard Mant, Master of the Grammar School, Southampton, was born at Southampton, Feb. 12, 1776. He was educated at Winchester and Trinity, Oxford (B.A. 1797, M.A., 1799). At Oxford he won the Chancellor's prize for an English essay: was a Fellow of Oriel, and for some time College Tutor. On taking Holy Orders he was successively curate to his father, then of one or two other places, Vicar of Coggeshall, Essex, 1810; Domestic Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 1813, Rector of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, London. 1816, and East Horsley, 1818, Bishop of Killaloe, 1820, of Down and Connor, 1823, and of Dromore, 1842. He was also Bampton Lecturer in 1811. He died Nov. 2, 1848. His prose works were numerou… Go to person page >

Author: Ambrose of Milan, 340-397

Ambrose (b. Treves, Germany, 340; d. Milan, Italy, 397), one of the great Latin church fathers, is remembered best for his preaching, his struggle against the Arian heresy, and his introduction of metrical and antiphonal singing into the Western church. Ambrose was trained in legal studies and distinguished himself in a civic career, becoming a consul in Northern Italy. When the bishop of Milan, an Arian, died in 374, the people demanded that Ambrose, who was not ordained or even baptized, become the bishop. He was promptly baptized and ordained, and he remained bishop of Milan until his death. Ambrose successfully resisted the Arian heresy and the attempts of the Roman emperors to dominate the church. His most famous convert and disciple w… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Now at the Lamb’s imperial feast
Title: Now At The Lamb's Imperial Feast
Latin Title: Ad caenam Agni providi
Translator: Richard Mant
Author: Ambrose of Milan, 340-397
Source: Ancient Hymns from the Roman Breviary (London, J. G. & F. Rivington, 1837)
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Tune

DUKE STREET

First published anonymously in Henry Boyd's Select Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (1793), DUKE STREET was credited to John Hatton (b. Warrington, England, c. 1710; d, St. Helen's, Lancaster, England, 1793) in William Dixon's Euphonia (1805). Virtually nothing is known about Hatton, its composer,…

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The Cyber Hymnal #11937
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The Cyber Hymnal #11937

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