4 It is not fanned by summer gale;
'Tis not refreshed by vernal showers;
It never needs the moon-beam pale,
For there are known no evening hours.
5 No, for this world is ever bright
With a pure radiance all its own;
The streams of uncreated light
Flow round it from th' eternal Throne.
6 There forms, unseen by mortal eye,
Too glorious for our sight to bear,
Are walking with their God on high,
And waiting our arrival there.
1 FAR from these scenes of night
Unbounded glories rise,
And realms of infinite delight,
Unknown to mortal eyes.
2 There sickness never comes;
There grief no more complains;
Health triumphs in immortal bloom,
And purest pleasure reigns.
3 No strife nor envy there
The sons of peace molest;
But harmony and love sincere
Fill every happy breast.
4 No cloud those regions know,
Forever bright and fair;
For sin, the source of mortal woe,
Can never enter there.
5 There night is never known,
Nor sun's faint sickly ray;
But glory from th' eternal throne
Spreads everlasting day.
60 may this prospect fire
Our hearts with ardent love!
And lively faith and strong desire
Bear every thought above.
A Prospect of the heavenly Canaan.
1 THERE is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;
Infinite 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 0, could we make our doubts remove,― Those gloomy doubts that rise,
And see 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.
The glorious World on High.
1 THERE is a glorious world on high,
Resplendent with eternal day;
Faith views the blissful prospect nigh,
And God's own word reveals the way.
2 There shall the servants of the Lord
With never-fading lustre shine;
Surprising honor! large reward,
Conferred on man by love divine!
3 The shining firmament shall fade,
And sparkling stars resign their light;
But these shall know no change nor shade,
Forever fair, forever bright.
4 No fancied joy beyond the sky,
No fair delusion is revealed;
'Tis God that speaks, who cannot lie,
And all his word must be fulfilled.
5 And shall not these cold hearts of ours
Be kindled at the glorious view?
Come, Lord, awake our active powers,
Our feeble, dying strength renew.
6 On wings of faith and strong desire
O may our spirits daily rise;
And reach at last the shining choir,
In the bright mansions of the skies.
Farewell to Life, in View of Heaven.
1 YE golden lamps of heaven! farewell,
With all your feeble light:
Farewell, thou ever-changing moon,
Pale empress of the night!
2 And thou, refulgent orb of day,
In brighter flames arrayed!
My soul, which springs beyond thy sphere, No more demands thine aid.
3 Ye stars are but the shining dust
Of my divine abode,
The pavement of those heavenly courts
Where I shall reign with God.
4 The Father of eternal light
Shall there his beams display;
Nor shall one moment's darkness mix
With that unvaried day.
5 No more the drops of piercing grief
Shall swell into mine eyes;
Nor the meridian sun decline,
Amid those brighter skies.
6 There all the millions of our race
Shall in one song unite;
And each the bliss of all shall view
With infinite delight.
Prospect of the heavenly Jerusalem.
1 AWAY with our sorrow and fear,
We soon shall recover our home;
The city of saints shall appear,
The day of eternity come.
From earth we shall quickly remove,
And mount to our native abode,
The house of our Father above,
The palace of angels and God.
2 By faith we already behold
That lovely Jerusalem here;
Her walls are of jasper and gold,
As crystal her buildings are clear:
Immoveably founded in grace,
She stands, as she ever hath stood,
And brightly her Builder displays,
And flames with the glory of God.
3 No need of the sun in that day,
Which never is followed by night,
Where Christ doth his brightness display,
A pure and a permanent light;
The Lamb is their light and their sun;
And, lo! by reflection they shine,
With Jesus ineffably one,
And bright in effulgence divine!
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