14 O sweet and blessed country,
Shall I ever see thy face?
O sweet and blessed country,
Shall I ever win thy grace?
I have the hope within me
To comfort and to bless!
Shall I ever win the prize itself?
O tell me, tell me, Yes!
15 Strive, man, to win that glory;
Toil, man, to gain that light;
Send hope before to grasp it,
Till hope be lost in sight.
Exult, O dust and ashes,
The Lord shall be thy part:
His only, his for ever
Thou shalt be, and thou art.
"For ever with the Lord."-1 Thess. iv. 17.
OR ever 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,
Thy golden gates appear!
4 Ah! then my spirit faints
To reach the land I love,
The bright inheritance of saints,
Jerusalem above!
5"For ever with the Lord!"
Father, if 'tis thy will,
The promise of that faithful word
Even here to me fulfil.
6 Be thou at my right hand,
Then can I 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,
"For ever with the Lord!"
"Whose faith follow."-Heb. xiii. 7.
GOD, to whom the faithful dead.
Still live, united to their Head,
Their Lord and ours the same:
For all thy saints, to memory dear,
Departed in thy faith and fear,
We bless thy holy name.
2 By the same grace upheld, may we
So follow those who followed thee,
As with them to partake
The full reward of heavenly bliss:
Merciful Father! grant us this
For our Redeemer's sake.
WHEN shall we sweetly remove,
O when shall we enter our rest,
Return to the Zion above,
The mother of spirits distrest! That city of God the great King,
Where sorrow and death are no more; But saints our Immanuel sing,
And cherub and seraph adore.
Not all the archangels can tell
The joys of that holiest place,
Where Jesus is pleased to reveal
The light of his heavenly face;
When caught in the rapturous flame,
The sight beatific they prove,
And walk in the light of the Lamb,
Enjoying the beams of his love.
3 Thou know'st, in the spirit of prayer,
We long thy appearing to see,
Resigned to the burden we bear,
But longing to triumph with thee:
'Tis good at thy word to be here,
"Tis better in thee to be gone,
And see thee in glory appear,
And rise to a share in thy throne. 4 To mourn for thy coming is sweet, To weep at thy longer delay;
But thou, whom we hasten to meet,
Shalt chase all our sorrows away.
The tears shall be wiped from our eyes,
When thee we behold in the cloud,
And echo the joys of the skies,
And shout to the trumpet of God.
The Hope of Heaven.
OW happy every child of grace,
Who knows his sins forgiven!
This earth, he cries, is not my place,
I seek my place in heaven!
A country far from mortal sight;
Yet O! by faith I see
The land of rest, the saints' delight,
The heaven prepared for me.
2 A stranger in the world below,
I calmly sojourn here;
Nor can its happiness or woe
Provoke my hope or fear:
Its evils in a moment end,
Its joys as soon are past;
But O! the bliss to which I tend
Eternally shall last.
3 To that Jerusalem above
With singing I repair;
While in the flesh, my hope and love,
My heart and soul, are there :
There my exalted Saviour stands,
My merciful High-priest,
And still extends his wounded hands
To take me to his breast.
4 What is there here to court my stay,
Or hold me back from home,
While angels beckon me away,
And Jesus bids me come ?
Shall I regret my parted friends,
Still in the vale confined?
Nay, but whene'er my soul ascends,
They will not stay behind.
5 The race we all are running now;
And if I first attain,
They too their willing head shall bow, They too the prize shall gain.
Now on the brink of death we stand;
And if I pass before,
They all shall soon escape to land,
And hail me on the shore.
6 Then let me suddenly remove,
That hidden life to share;
I shall not lose my friends above,
But more enjoy them there.
There we in Jesu's praise shall join,
His boundless love proclaim.
And solemnize in songs divine
The marriage of the Lamb.
7 O what a blessed hope is ours!
While here on earth we stay,
We more than taste the heavenly powers,
And antedate that day:
We feel the resurrection near,
Our life in Christ concealed,
And with his glorious presence here
Our earthen vessels filled.
8 O would he more of heaven bestow,
And let the vessel break,
And let our ransomed spirits go
To grasp the God we seek ;
In rapturous awe on him to gaze,
Who bought the sight for me;
And shout, and wonder at his grace,
Through all eternity!
The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."-Rom. viii. 18.
AND let this feeble body fail,
And let it droop and die;
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