As He Did (Follow Christ and love the world)

This is a folk-style hymn about following Christ.

It was written by South African born folk, English and later USA immigrant, lay Franciscan singer/song-writer and musician, Sebastian Temple (1928-1997).

It was published in the 1970s in the 20th Century Folk Hymnal Volume 1, but does not appear to have been published again after that.

It was included in the album Sing! People of God, Sing!, released by Franciscan Communications in 1971 (ref).

It is set to an unnamed tune, also by Temple. This has a 2/2 time signature. In the key of E, the first few notes are G G G G G G G G B__ G___ with accompanying chords E / G#m / E.

Downloads

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No downloadable versions have been found, of either performances or the sheet music. If you know where to find one, please leave a message in the Comments box near the bottom of the page.

Examples

Choir with band:

Original recording:

Singer with guitar:

Lyrics

The lyrics are copyright so cannot be reproduced here. But they are currently available on this website. A rough outline is:

1 Follow Christ and love the world as He did,
When He walked upon the earth.
Love each friend and enemy as He did;
In God’s eyes we have equal worth

2 Follow Christ and serve the world as He did,
When He ministered to everyone.
Serve each friend and enemy as He did,
So that the Father’s will be done.

3 He said: “Love each other as I love you,
By this all men will know you are mine.
As I served you so must you do,
This new commandment I assign”.

4 Follow Christ and love the world as He did,
When He walked upon the earth.
Love each friend and enemy as He did;
In God’s eyes we have equal worth.