University of Virginia Library

XVI.

[Lord, we have all forsook]

Lord, we have all forsook,
Thy dying love to know,
To bear Thy light and easy yoke,
And in Thy footsteps go;
Pleasure, and goods, and fame,
We gladly have restored,
In pain, and poverty, and shame,
Partakers with our Lord.
Arm'd with Thy strength alone,
We still our all resign;
Our lives, which once we call'd our own,
Are not our own, but Thine:

49

Ready we always stand
In Thine almighty power,
To yield them up at Thy command,
And meet the fiery hour.
Where is the promise then,
The bliss Thou hast prepared
For us before the sons of men,
Where is our great reward?
The hundred-fold increase
Of goods, and lands, and friends,
The sweet unutterable peace,
The joy that never ends?
Surely we are possess'd
Of Thee our recompence,
Ecstasy fills our panting breast,
And pains our aching sense:
What hath the world like this!
The joy which now we know—
'Tis more than joy, or life, or bliss,
'Tis heaven begun below.
Yet O! we look for more
And mightier joys above,
The fulness of Thy heavenly store,
Of Thine eternal love:
Glory shall end the strife,
And in these bodies shine;
Jesu, our everlasting Life,
Our flesh shall be like Thine.
Changed by His mighty love,
We shall be as our Lord,
And sit upon our thrones above,
And bless His just award:

50

While trembling at the bar
Devils and tyrants stand,
We shall with Him their doom declare,
And shout at His right hand.
Then every saint of His
Shall lean upon His breast;
The wicked there from troubling cease,
And there the weary rest:
Our sufferings all are o'er,
Our tears are wiped away,
We only love, rejoice, adore,
Through one eternal day.
The rivers of delight
That there our souls embrace,
The glorious beatific sight
That veils the angels' face,
The joys ineffable
That from Thy presence flow,
The fulness here we cannot tell,
But, Lord, we die to know.