What did the Old Orders keep?

What Did the Old Orders Keep?

In days of ole when preachers sang

And families bent the knee

What did the fathers then portend

For their children’s lives to be?

The nineteenth century preyed upon with industrial pulse

Most everyone, to seize with joy the New Order’s course

The church foretold its doom and prayed

God’s will be done while yet twas day

Sunday Schools and picnics came

New clothes and bonnets too

Next revivals, higher institutions and

Foreign missions across the blue

Against these changes some who stood

Were parted from the rest

Planted in their proven ways

They were sentenced to a test

Could they keep their piety?

Could they manage God’s own truth?

Could they handle change without?

Could they harbor true renown?

The Old Order felt the World’s way

Was by far a dangerous path

They felt it’s evangelicalness

Would soon incur God’s wrath

So strong they stood for Order

And hard they preached for good

Long they sat for unity

And waited on the Lord

Community they kept

Good Order they would say

Uniformity of practice

Could be seen from day to day

Preachers still stood to speak

As moved by God on high

Not paid a salary from goers

To the Steeple house nearby

Their people soon would feel

That though the world had changed

Their community would be around

Without too much of its proud gain

So now the years have passed

The New Order changers have all gone

Most to some far off distant place

Where old orders are forgot

But yet Old Order linger here

Amid the industrial strength

With somewhat of a lingering ear

To hear the world’s whispering pace

I think the piety our father’s feared

They’d lose without their Order

Was lost the day they thought to keep

It confined with brick and mortar

For twas in the Spirit that their hearts did grow

To love the Lord so dear

And through His Ghost alone twill be

His presence felt within and near

Oh yes, they’ve kept some things

That shouldn’t have been let astray

But still more should these Orders see

That God still rules today

It’s in the quiet secret place

Not in the religious show

That Light within a sincere heart’s space

Which learns God’s will and grows.

Amongst the outside World

Stand many brave and true

Who love the Lord with pious hearts

Without the Order old or new

God moves in man and womankind

His hand doth bend and make

Instruments fit as vessels used

With His Spirit he still creates

There are the Gay and Straight loved ones

Who stand without the door

The Orders have forbidden them

To fellowship no more

But Jesus in his warm embrace

With God the Father, cares

His Order is for all Earth’s space

To be equally and lovingly shared

So hide not from Industry’s sneer

And flee not from it’s Glee

But keep that which matters most

Loving your neighbor more than thee