THE GLORY OF HEAVEN

Beyond this shadowy vale of tears
There is a better land,
Where all the good of earth at last
Shall reign-a tearless band.
What most with rapture fills my soul,
Of all its glories rare,
And bids me long to go and dwell
Within its mansions fair?HHHH 91.2

Is it that round the fadeless brows,
The starry crowns entwine?
In robes of pure and dazzling white,
The forms of beauty shine?
That we shall tune the golden lyres,
O’er the celestial plains,
Where notes of sorrow never blend
With those sweet, seraph strains?HHHH 91.3

Is it that darkness never clouds
That bright eternal day?
That pain and sickness enters not
To waste the frame away?HHHH 91.4

That cheerless grief hath never there
The heart’s deep fountains stirred?
The parting hand is never given,
The farewell never heard?HHHH 92.1

Is it that fields of living green
Are decked with fragrant flowers,
That bloom in one perennial Spring
In Eden’s happy bowers?
The calm repose from weary toil
From anxious care and fear?
That we shall meet again the loved,
Who shared our trials here?HHHH 92.2

‘Tis not the harp, the robe, the crown,
The morn that hath no night,
The home that hath no severed ties,
The rose without the blight,
The rest that cares may never break,
The joy that knows no pain,
The meeting round the radiant throne,
Eternally to reign.HHHH 92.3

But he who all our sorrows bore,
And groaned upon the tree,
Who trod the thorny path below,
And tasted death for me,
Who for us, sinners, bled and died,
That we such bliss might share-
The Lamb on Calvary crucified,
It is that-he is there!HHHH 92.4