Part of the host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now.

5 Ev'n now to their eternal home
Some happy spirits fly;

And we are to the margin come,
And soon expect to die!

6 Dear Saviour! be our constant guide;
Then, when the word is given,
Bid Jordan's narrow stream divide,
And land us safe in heaven.

680

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HYMN 680, C. M.

Rising to God.

Now let our souls, on wings sublime,

Rise from the vanities of time,
Draw back the parting veil, and see
The glories of eternity.

2 Born by a new celestial birth,
Why should we grovel here on earth?
Why grasp at transitory toys,

So near to heaven's eternal joys?

3 Should aught beguile us on the road,
When we are walking back to God?
For strangers into life we come,
And dying is but going home.

4 Welcome, sweet hour of full discharge!
That sets our longing souls at large,
Unbinds our chains, breaks up our cell,
And gives us with our God to dwell.
5 To dwell with God-to feel his love,
Is the full heaven enjoyed above;
And the sweet expectation now
Is the young dawn of heaven below.

681

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JEF

HYMN 681, C. M.

The heavenly City.

ERUSALEM!--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?

mf

Thy bulwarks, with salvation strong,
And streets of shining gold?

8 Oh! when, thou city of my God!
Shall I thy courts ascend,-

Where congregations ne'er break up,
And Sabbaths never end?

mp 4 Why should I shrink at pain or woe,
Or feel, at death, dismay?
Jerusalem I soon shall view,
In realms of endless day.

5 Redeeméd saints and angels, there,
Around my Saviour stand;
And soon my friends in Christ, below,
Will join the glorious band.

6 Jerusalem!-my happy home!
My soul still pants for thee;
Then shall my labors have an end,
When I thy joys shall see.

682

P

Λ

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HYMN 682, S. L. M.

The Perpetuity of Heaven.

FRIEND

RIEND after friend departs:
Who hath not lost a friend?
There is no union here of hearts,
That finds not here an end:
Were this frail world our final rest,
Living or dying, none were blest.
2 Beyond the flight of time,
Beyond the reign of death,
There surely is some blessed clime,
Where life is not a breath
Nor life's affections, transient fire,
Whose sparks fly upwards and expire.

3 There is a world above,

Where parting is unknown;
A long eternity of love,

Formed for the good alone;
And faith beholds the dying here,
Translated to that glorious sphere.

4 Thus star by star declines,

Till all have passed away;

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As morning high and higher shines,
To pure and perfect day;

Nor sink those stars in empty night,

But hide themselves in heaven's own ligl t.

HYMN 683, C. M.

683 Heaven -for Sunday Schools.

mf 1 THERE is a glorious world of light, Above the starry sky;

Where saints departed, clothed in white,
Adore the Lord most high.

2 And hark!-amid the sacred songs
Those heavenly voices raise,

Ten thousand thousand infant tongues
Unite in perfect praise.

3 Those are the hymns that we shall know,
If Jesus we obey ;

That is the place where we shall go,

If found in wisdom's way.

4 This is the joy we ought to seek,
And make our chief concern ;

For this we come, from week to week,
To read, and hear, and learn.

5 Soon will our earthly race be run,
Our mortal frame decay;

Children and teachers, one by one,
Must pass from earth away.

6 Great God! impress the serious thought,
This day, on every breast;

684

That both the teachers and the taught
May enter to thy rest.

HYMN 684, C. M.

The Joys unseen.

mf 1 NOR eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard,

Nor sense nor reason known,

What joys the Father has prepared,
For those who love the Son.

2 But the good Spirit of the Lord
Reveals a heaven to come;

The beams of glory, in his word,
Allure and guide us home.

3 Pure are the joys above the sky,
And all the region peace;
No wanton lip, nor envious eye,
Can see or taste the bliss.

4 Those holy gates for ever bar
Pollution, sin, and shame;
None shall obtain admittance there,
But foll'wers of the Lamb.

685

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HYMN 685, L. M.

Heaven alone unfading.

How vain

JOW vain is all beneath the skies!
How transient every earthly bliss!
How slender all the fondest ties

That bind us to a world like this!
2 The evening cloud, the morning dew,
The withering grass, the fading flower,
Of earthly hopes are emblems true,-
The glory of a passing hour.

But, though earth's fairest blossoms die,
And all beneath the skies is vain,
There is a land, whose confines lie

Beyond the reach of care and pain.
4 Then let the hope of joys to come

686

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Dispel our cares, and chase our fears:
If God be ours, we're traveling home,
Though passing through a vale of tears.

HYMN 686, C. L. M.

The everlasting Bliss of Heaven.

HEAV

TEAVEN is the land where troubles cease,
Where toils and tears are o'er

The blissful clime of rest and peace,
Where cares distract no more;
And not the shadow of distress

Dims its unsullied blessedness.

2 Heaven is the place where Jesus lives,
To plead his dying blood;

While, to his prayers, his Father gives
An unknown multitude,

Whose harps and tongues, through endless days,

Shall crown his head with songs of praise.

mf 3 Heaven is the dwelling place of joy, The home of light and love,

687

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Where faith and hope in rapture die;
And ransomed souls above
Enjoy, before th' eternal throne,
Bliss everlasting and unknown.

FAR

HYMN 687, C. M.

The unseen and blessed World.

AR from these narrow scenes of night,
Unbounded glories rise,

And realms of infinite delight,
Unknown to mortal eyes.

2 Fair distant land! could mortal eyes
But half its charms explore,

How would our spirits long to rise,
And dwell on earth no more!

mf 3 No cloud those blissful regions know,-
Realms ever bright and fair;

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For sin, the source of mortal woe,
Can never enter there.

4 Oh! may the heavenly prospect fire
Our hearts with ardent love,

Till wings of faith and strong desire
Bear every thought above.

5 Prepare us, Lord! by grace divine,
For thy bright courts on high;
Then bid our spirits rise, and join
The chorus of the sky.

688

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ΥΛΙ

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HYMN 688, 8s and 6s, Irregular.
Nothing like Heaven.

THIS world is poor from shore to shore,
And, like a baseless vision,

Its lofty domes and brilliant ore,

Its gems and crowns, are vain and poor ;-
There's nothing rich but heaven.

2 Empires decay and nations die,
Our hopes to winds are given;
The vernal blooms in ruin lie,

Death reigns o'er all beneath the sky;-
There's nothing sure but heaven.