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





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