Hymn History: The Church's One Foundation

“No one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 3:11

I know I always say this, but this is one of my favorite hymns (especially if played on an organ)!

So I read up on it, and its history is very interesting.
Back in the 1860s, John William Colenso, the Bishop of Natal, created a schism in the South African church by supporting theological views that others saw as unorthodox. He denied eternal punishment, supported polygamy among African natives, believed that all 'races' were created separately instead of descending from Adam and Eve, and he questioned the reliability of the Pentateuch and book of Joshua; among other things.

In response to some of Bishop Colenso's views, Samuel John Stone, currently the curate of Windsor (and later vicar at Haggerston), wrote Lyra Fidelium, a collection of 12 hymns that laid out the 12 main points of the Apostle's Creed. The Church's One Foundation was written for the 9th article of the Apostle's Creed: The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints.

Stone originally wrote seven stanzas, but later made a ten-stanza version, only five verses of which end up in most modern hymnals. I personally prefer the seven-stanza version.

The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her
And for her life He died.

She is from every nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth;
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.

The Church shall never perish!
Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain, and cherish,
Is with her to the end:
Though there be those who hate her,
And false sons in her pale,
Against both foe or traitor
She ever shall prevail.

Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed:
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song!

’Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace forevermore;
Till, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won,
With all her sons and daughters
Who, by the Master’s hand
Led through the deathly waters, 
Repose in Eden land.

O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with Thee:
There, past the border mountains,
Where in sweet vales the Bride
With Thee by living fountains
Forever shall abide!