HEAVEN.

556

7, 6, 8 l

Jerusalem the golden,
With milk and honey blest!
Beneath thy contemplation
Sink heart and voice opprest.
I know not, O I know not
What joys await us there,
What radiancy of glory,
What bliss beyond compare!
2. There is the throne of David;
And there, from care released,
The songs of them that triumph,
The shout of them that feast;
And they who, with their Leader,
Have conquered in the fight,
Forever and forever,
Are clad in robes of white!
3. Exult, O dust and ashes!
The Lord shall be thy Part;
His only, His forever,
Thou shalt be and thou art!
Jesus, in mercy bring us
Soon to that land of rest;
Who art, with God the Father
And Spirit, ever blest!

Bernard of Cluny, 12th cent.; J. M. Neale, tr., 1851.

557

7, 6, 8 l

Brief life is here our portion;
Brief sorrow, short-lived care;
The life that knows no ending,
The tearless life, is there.
O happy retribution!
Short toil, eternal rest;
For mortals and for sinners
A mansion with the blest!
2. And now we fight the battle,
But then shall wear the crown
Of full and everlasting
And passionless renown;
And now we watch and struggle,
And now we live in hope,
And Zion in her anguish
With Babylon must cope.
3. But He whom now we trust in
Shall then be seen and known;
And they that know and see Him
Shall have Him for their own.
And there is David’s fountain
And life in fullest glow;
And there the light is golden,
And milk and honey flow.
4. The morning shall awaken,
And shadows shall decay,
And each true-hearted servant
Shall shine as doth the day;
Yes! God, my King and Portion,
In fulness of His grace,
We then shall see forever
And worship face to face.
5. O sweet and blessed country,
The home of God’s elect!
O sweet and blessed country
That eager hearts expect!
Jesus, in mercy bring us
To that dear land of rest;
Who art, with God the Father
And Spirit, ever blest.

Bernard of Cluny, 12th cent.; J. M. Neale, tr., 1851.

558

C. M.

Jerusalem, my happy home,
Name ever dear to me,
When shall my labors have an end
In joy and peace and thee?
2. When shall these eyes thy heaven-built walls
And pearly gates behold;
Thy bulwarks with salvation strong
And streets of shining gold?
3. O when, thou city of my God,
Shall I thy courts ascend,
Where evermore the angels sing,
Where sabbaths have no end?
4. There happier bowers than Eden’s bloom,
Nor sin nor sorrow know;
Blest seats! through rude and stormy scenes
I onward press to you.
5. Why should I shrink from pain and woe
Or feel at death dismay?
I’ve Canaan’s goodly land in view
And realms of endless day.
6. Apostles, martyrs, prophets, there
Around my Savior stand;
And soon my friends in Christ below
Will join the glorious band.

From an ancient hymn, anon., 1801.

559

10, 6, 10, 6, 7, 6, 7, 6

Jerusalem, thou city fair and high,
Would God I were in thee!
My longing heart fain, fain to thee would fly,
It will not stay with me;
Far over vale and mountain,
Far over field and plain,
It hastes to seek its Fountain
And quit this world of pain.
2. O happy day, and yet far happier hour,
When wilt thou come at last,
When fearless to my Father’s love and power,
Whose promise standeth fast,
My soul I gladly render?
For surely will His hand
Lead her, with guidance tender,
To heaven, her fatherland.
3. A moment’s space, and gently, wondrously,
Released from earthly ties,
Elijah’s chariot bears her up to thee,
Through all these lower skies
To yonder shining regions,
While down to meet her come
The blessed angel legions
And bid her welcome home.
4. O Zion, hail! Bright city, now unfold
The gates of grace to me!
How many a time I longed for thee of old,
Ere yet I was set free
From yon dark life of sadness,
Yon world of shadowy naught,
And God had given the gladness,
The heritage I sought.
5. O what the tribe, or what the glorious host,
Comes sweeping swiftly down?
The chosen ones on earth who wrought the most,
The Church’s brightest crown,
Our Lord hath sent to meet me,
As in the far-off years
Their words oft came to greet me
In yonder land of tears.
6. The patriarchs’ and prophets’ noble train,
With all Christ’s followers true,
Who bore the cross and could the worst disdain
That tyrants dared to do,
I see them shine forever,
All glorious as the sun,
Mid light that fadeth never,
Their perfect freedom won.
7. And when within that lovely paradise
At last I safely dwell,
From out my soul what songs of bliss shall rise,
What joy my lips shall tell,
While holy saints are singing
Hosannas o’er and o’er,
Pure hallelujahs ringing
Around me evermore!
8. Innumerous choirs before the shining throne
Their joyful anthems raise,
Till heaven’s glad halls are echoing with the tone
Of that great hymn of praise,
And all its host rejoices,
And all its blessed throng
Unite their myriad voices
In one eternal song.

J. M. Meyfart, 1626; C. Winkworth, tr., a.

560

C. M.

There is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;
Eternal day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.
2. There everlasting spring abides,
And never-withering flowers;
Death, like a narrow sea, divides
This heavenly land from ours.
3. Sweet fields, beyond the swelling flood,
Stand dressed in living green;
So to the Jews old Canaan stood,
While Jordan rolled between.
4. But timorous mortals start and shrink
To cross this narrow sea,
And linger, shivering, on the brink
And fear to launch away.
5. O could we make our doubts remove,
Those gloomy doubts that rise,
And view the Canaan that we love,
With unbeclouded eyes:
6. Could we but climb where Moses stood
And view the landscape o’er,
Not Jordan’s stream nor death’s cold flood
Should fright us from the shore.

Isaac Watts, 1707.

561

8, 6, 8, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6

O Paradise, O Paradise,
Who doth not crave for rest?
Who would not seek the happy land
Where they that loved are blest;
Where loyal hearts, and true,
Stand ever in the light,
All rapture through and through,
In God’s most holy sight?
2. O Paradise, O Paradise,
The world is growing old;
Who would not be at rest and free
Where love is never cold;
Where loyal hearts, and true,
Stand ever in the light,
All rapture through and through,
In God’s most holy sight?
3. O Paradise, O Paradise,
I greatly long to see
The special place my dearest Lord
In love prepares for me;
Where loyal hearts, and true,
Stand ever in the light,
All rapture through and through,
In God’s most holy sight.
4. Lord Jesus, King of Paradise,
Oh, keep me in Thy love
And guide me to that happy land
Of perfect rest above,
Where loyal hearts, and true,
Stand ever in the light,
All rapture through and through,
In God’s most holy sight.

F. W. Faber, 1862.

562

7, 6, 8 l

The Homeland! O the Homeland!
The land of souls free born!
No gloomy night is known there,
But aye the fadeless morn.
I’m sighing for that country,
My heart is aching here;
There is no pain in the Homeland,
To which I’m drawing near.
2. My Lord is in the Homeland,
With angels bright and fair;
No sinful thing nor evil,
Can ever enter there.
The music of the ransomed
Is ringing in my ears;
And when I think of the Homeland,
My eyes are wet with tears.
3. For loved ones in the Homeland
Are waiting me to come
Where neither death nor sorrow
Invades their holy home.
O dear, dear native country!
O rest and peace above!
Christ bring us all to the Homeland
Of His eternal love.

H. R. Haweis, 1855.

563

6, 4, 6, 4, 6, 6, 6, 4

I’m but a stranger here,
Heav’n is my home;
Earth is a desert drear,
Heav’n is my home;
Danger and sorrow stand
Round me on every hand;
Heav’n is my fatherland,
Heav’n is my home.
2. What though the tempest rage,
Heav’n is my home;
Short is my pilgrimage,
Heav’n is my home;
And time’s wild wintry blast
Soon shall be overpast;
I shall reach home at last,—
Heav’n is my home.
3. There at my Savior’s side—
Heav’n is my home—
I shall be glorified,—
Heav’n is my home.
There are the good and blest,
Those I love most and best;
And there I, too, shall rest,—
Heav’n is my home.
4. Therefore I murmur not—
Heav’n is my home—
Whate’er my earthly lot,—
Heav’n is my home;
And I shall surely stand
There at my Lord’s right hand,—
Heav’n is my fatherland,
Heav’n is my home.

T. R. Taylor, 1836, a.

564

8, 6, 8, 8, 6

There is an hour of peaceful rest,
To mourning wanderers given;
There is a joy for souls distrest,
A balm for every wounded breast:
’Tis found above—in heaven.
2. There is a soft, a downy bed,
’Tis fair as breath of even;
A couch for weary mortals spread
Where they may rest the aching head
And find repose—in heaven.
3. There is a home for weary souls,
By sin and sorrow driven,—
When tossed on life’s tempestuous shoals,
Where storms arise and ocean rolls,
And all is drear—but heaven.
4. There faith lifts up her cheerful eye,
To brighter prospects given;
And views the tempest passing by,
The evening shadows quickly fly,
And all serene—in heaven.
5. There fragrant flowers immortal bloom,
And joys supreme are given;
There rays divine disperse the gloom;
Beyond the confines of the tomb
Appears the dawn of heaven.

W. B. Tappan, 1818.

565

9, 8, 6 l

A slumber I know, in Jesus’ name,
A rest from all toil and sorrow;
Earth tenderly takes my weary frame
To sleep till the blissful morrow;
In heaven my soul with God abides,
Forgotten are cares and trials.
2. An even I know, serene and blest,
And oft is my spirit longing,
When, weary and worn, it finds no rest
While woes on the way are thronging;
Oft longing to see the journey’s end,
And rest in a blissful slumber.
3. A morning I know, so bright and fair,
When tidings of joy shall wake us,
When anthems from high shall fill the air
And God to His glory take us;
When Jesus shall bid us rise from sleep—
How joyous that hour of awaking!
4. Oh, dear is that morning fair to me!
And oft, o’er the mountains beaming,
In spirit its heavenly light I see,
As golden the peaks are gleaming.
For joy I must sing as birds at dawn
Their carols in lofty lindens.
5. The Savior then comes unto our graves;
His mighty command is given.
Then break from the deep the ocean waves,
Each tomb and restraint is riven.
All earth hears the cry, Ye dead, come forth!
In glory we go to meet Him.

M. B. Landstad, † 1880.

566

8s 10 l

Yes, there remaineth still a rest!
Arise, sad heart, that darkly pines,
By heavy care and pain opprest,
On whom no sun of gladness shines;
Look to the Lamb! In yon bright fields
Thou’lt know the joy His presence yields.
Cast off thy load and thither haste;
Soon shalt thou fight and bleed no more,
Soon, soon thy weary course be o’er,
And deep the rest thou then shalt taste.
2. The rest appointed thee of God,
The rest that naught shall break or move,
That ere this earth by man was trod,
Was set apart for thee by Love.
Our Savior gave His life to win
This rest for thee; O enter in!
Hear how His voice sounds far and wide,
“Ye weary souls, no more delay,
Loiter not faithless by the way;
Here in My peace and rest abide!”
3. Ye heavy-laden, come to Him!
Ye who are bent with many a load,
Come from your prisons drear and dim,
Toil thus not sadly on your road!
Ye’ve borne the burden of the day,
And hear ye not the Savior say:
“I am your Refuge and your Rest”?
His children ye, of heavenly birth,
Howe’er may rage sin, hell, or earth,
Here ye are safe, here calmly blest.
4. O what contentment fills the breast
Of wanderers through the desert plains
If they have found a place to rest,
To quench their thirst and cure their pains!
How welcome is a humble bed,
Where they may rest their weary head,
To persons that are sick and sore!
Such hours of sweet repose soon fly.
But there remains a rest on high
Where we shall rest forevermore.
5. Yonder in joy the sheaves we bring,
Whose seed was sown on earth in tears;
There in our Father’s house we sing
The song too sweet for mortal ears.
Sorrow and sighing all are past,
And pain and death are fled at last.
There with the lamb of God we dwell,
He leads us to the crystal river,
He wipes away all tears forever;
What there is ours no tongue can tell.
6. Nor thirst nor hunger pains us there,
The time of recompense is come,
Nor cold nor scorching heat we bear,
We’re sheltered in our Savior’s home.
The Lamb is in the midst; and those
Who followed Him through shame and woes
Are crowned with honor, joy, and peace.
The dry bones gather life again,
One Sabbath over all shall reign,
Wherein all toil and labor cease.
7. There is untroubled calm and light,
No gnawing care shall mar our rest;
Ye weary, heed this word aright;
Come, lean upon your Savior’s breast!
Fain would I linger here no more,
Fain to yon happier world upsoar,
And join that bright, expectant band.
O raise, my soul, the joyful song
That rings through yon triumphant throng;
Thy perfect rest is nigh at hand.

J. S. Kunth, 1733; C. Winkworth, tr., a.

567

S. M.

“Forever with the Lord!”
Amen! so let it be;
Life from the dead is in that word,
’Tis immortality.
2. Here in the body pent,
Absent from Him I roam,
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
A day’s march nearer home.
3. My Father’s house on high,
Home of my soul! how near
At times to faith’s foreseeing eye
The golden gates appear!
4. Ah! then my spirit faints
To reach the land I love,
The bright inheritance of saints,
Jerusalem above!
5. “Forever with the Lord!”
Father, if ’tis Thy will,
The promise of that faithful word
E’en here to me fulfil.
6. Be Thou at my right hand,
Then I can never fail;
Uphold Thou me, and I shall stand;
Fight, and I must prevail.
7. So when my latest breath
Shall rend the veil in twain,
By death I shall escape from death
And life eternal gain.
8. Knowing as I am known,
How shall I love that word
And oft repeat before the throne,
“Forever with the Lord!”

James Montgomery, 1835.