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Play “I Was A Wandering Sheep”

Free same-meter accompaniment for I Was A Wandering Sheep (Horatius Bonar): organ, piano or guitar playing the tune DIADEMATA (George J. Elvey) in four-part harmony, 4 verses, with the words on screen. Choose the key and speed, add an introduction, project the words on a TV, or practice your own choir part. Made for churches and home groups without a musician.

Sung here to DIADEMATA (George J. Elvey), a Short Meter Double (6.6.8.6 D) tune — not necessarily the tune usually paired with this text. Any tune in the same meter fits the words.

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  1. 1I was a wand'ring sheep,
  2. I did not love the fold,
  3. I did not love my Shepherd's voice,
  4. I would not be controlled;
  5. I was a wayward child,
  6. I did not love my home,
  7. I did not love my Father's voice,
  8. I loved afar to roam.
  9. 2The Shepherd sought His sheep,
  10. The Father sought His child;
  11. He followed me o'er vale and hill,
  12. O'er deserts waste and wild:
  13. He found me nigh to death,
  14. Famished, and faint, and lone,
  15. He bound me with the bands of love,
  16. He saved the wand'ring one.
  17. 3Jesus my Shepherd is;
  18. 'Twas He that loved my soul,
  19. 'Twas He that washed me in His blood,
  20. 'Twas He that made me whole:
  21. 'Twas He that sought the lost,
  22. That found the wand'ring sheep,
  23. 'Twas He that brought me to the fold,
  24. 'Tis He that still doth keep.
  25. 4I was a wand'ring sheep,
  26. I would not be controlled,
  27. But now I love my Shepherd's voice,
  28. I love, I love the fold:
  29. I was a wayward child,
  30. I once preferred to roam;
  31. But now I love my Father's voice,
  32. I love, I love His home!

About this music

DIADEMATA — George J. Elvey. 'Diademata' George J. Elvey, 1868. Setting: "Appendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern", 1869.. The score is from the Open Hymnal Project, copied from "Appendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern", 1869 Hymn 318. Ed. William H. Monk. Unknown if the arrangement is Elvey's or Monk's.; music and setting are in the public domain. The words above are from the hymnal cited on the I Was A Wandering Sheep page.

Played in your browser with instrument sounds from the FluidR3 soundfont by Frank Wen (MIT license). No recordings are used.

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