University of Virginia Library

previous section Songs for the Wilderness
no next section

RESURRECTION.

So shall we ever be with the Lord. —1 Thess. iv. 17.

“For ever with the Lord;”
Amen, so let it be!
Life from the dead is in that word,—
'Tis immortality.
Here, in the body pent,
Absent from Him I roam;
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
A day's march nearer home.
My Father's house on high;—
Home of my soul how near,—
At times to faith's forseeing eye
Thy golden gates appear!
Ah, then, my spirit faints
To reach the land I love;
The bright inheritance of saints,
Jerusalem above.
48

How shall I meet his eye?
Mine on the cross I cast,
And own my life a Saviour's prize,—
Mercy from first to last.
“Knowing as I am known,”—
How shall I love that word!
And oft repeat before the throne,
“For ever with the Lord.”
The trump of final doom
Shall speak the self-same word;
And Heav'n's voice thunder thro' the tomb,
“For ever with the Lord.”
The tomb shall echo deep
That death-awakening sound;
The saints shall hear it in their sleep,
And answer from the ground.
Then, when they upward fly,
That Resurrection-word
Shall be their shout of victory,—
“For ever with the Lord.”
That Resurrection-word,
That shout of victory,
Once more, “for ever with the Lord,”—
Amen, so let it be!
previous section Songs for the Wilderness
no next section