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This is the man who runs with God

Authors:

Idle, Christopher Martin

Themes:

Book Number:

1211

This is the man who runs with God!
Who aims where such forerunners trod?
He sets the pace, he wins the crown;
he spends his life, he lays it down.

2. This is the place where he is known;
in China born, at Eltham grown,
the Scotland star who will not fade,
who loves the day the Lord has made.

3. This is the day, the first and best,
of praise and prayer and Sabbath rest;
for Christ is risen, Christ is ours
for heart and mind and all our powers.

4. These are the feet that bring good news;
when Christ commands, who dares refuse?
For us he came, for us he died;
be strong; the Lord is on our side!

5. This is the cost, the body’s breath
to love, to laugh, through war and death;
by blood and tears the track is hard,
but untold joy is Christ’s reward.

6. This is the goal, the end of pain;
to live is Christ, to die is gain!
praise God for all whose race is won
and each new life in Christ begun.

THEME: ERIC LIDDELL 1902 1945; AT ELTHAM COLLEGE 1908-1919

SCRIPTURES: EXODUS 20:8–11; PSALM 118:6,24; ISAIAH 52:7;
ROM 14:8–9; 1 COR 9:22–27; PHIL 1:21; 2 TIM 4:7–8; HEB 12:1–2

The Christian Life - Zeal in Service

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Tune

Truro
Metre:
- LM (Long Metre: 88 88)
Composer:
- Williams, Thomas John

A look at the author

Idle, Christopher Martin

b Bromley, Kent 1938. Eltham Coll, St Peter’s Coll Oxford (BA, English), Clifton Theol Coll Bristol; ordained in 1965 to a Barrow-in-Furness curacy. He spent 30 years in CofE parish ministry, some in rural Suffolk, mainly in inner London (Peckham, Poplar and Limehouse). Author of over 300 hymn texts, mainly Scripture based, collected in Light upon the River (1998) and Walking by the River (2008), Trees along the River (2018), and now appearing in some 300 books and other publications; see also the dedication of EP1 (p3) to his late wife Marjorie. He served on 5 editorial groups from Psalm Praise (1973) to Praise!; his writing includes ‘Grove’ booklets Hymns in Today’s Language (1982) and Real Hymns, Real Hymn Books (2000), and The Word we preach, the words we sing (Reform, 1998). He edited the quarterly News of Hymnody for 10 years, and briefly the Bulletin of the Hymn Society, on whose committee he served at various times between 1984 and 2006; and addressed British and American Hymn Socs. Until 1996 he often exchanged draft texts with Michael Perry (qv) for mutual criticism and encouragement. From 1995 he was engaged in educational work and writing from home in Peckham, SE London, until retirement in 2003; following his return to Bromley after a gap of 40 years, he has attended Holy Trinity Ch Bromley Common and Hayes Lane Baptist Ch. Owing much to the Proclamation Trust, he also belongs to the Anglican societies Crosslinks and Reform, together with CND and the Christian pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation. A former governor of 4 primary schools, he has also written songs for school assemblies set to familiar tunes, and (in 2004) Grandpa’s Amazing Poems and Awful Pictures. His bungalow is smoke-free, alcohol-free, car-free, gun-free and TV-free. Nos.13, 18, 21, 23A, 24B, 27B, 28, 31, 35, 36, 37, 48, 50, 68, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 85, 89, 92, 95, 102, 108, 109, 114, 118, 119A, 121A, 125, 128, 131, 145B, 157, 176, 177, 193*, 313*, 333, 339, 388, 392, 420, 428, 450, 451, 463, 478, 506, 514, 537, 548, 551, 572, 594, 597, 620, 621, 622, 636, 668, 669, 693, 747, 763, 819, 914, 917, 920, 945, 954, 956, 968, 976, 1003, 1012, 1084, 1098, 1138, 1151, 1158, 1159, 1178, 1179, 1181, 1201, 1203, 1204, 1205, 1209, 1210, 1211, 1212, 1221, 1227, 1236, 1237, 1244, 1247, 5017, 5018, 5019, 5020.