66*

1

DESCRIBING HEAVEN.

878,747. O! He comes with clouds descending,

Thousand thousand saints attending. Swell the triumph of his train: Hallelujah!

God appears on earth to reign.

2 Every eye shall now behold him

Robed in dreadful majesty; Those who set at nought and sold him, Pierced and nailed him to the tree,

Deeply wailing,

Shall the true Messiah see.

3 The dear tokens of his passion

Still his dazzling body bears; Cause of endless exultation

To his ransomed worshippers; With what rapture Gaze we on those glorious scars!

4 Yea, Amen! let all adore thee,

High on thy eternal throne; Saviour, take the power and glory, Claim the kingdom for thine own; Jah, Jehovah,

Everlasting God, come down!

( 5.) DESCRIBING HEAVEN.

67

2-6s& 4-7s.

1

Hof self- deluding men!

TOW weak the thoughts, and vain,

Men who, fixed to earth alone,

Think their houses shall endure, Fondly call their lands their own, To their distant heirs secure. 2 How happy then are we,

Who build, O Lord, on thee! What can our foundation shock? Though the shattered earth remove, Stands our city on a rock,

On the Rock of heavenly love. 3 A house we call our own

Which cannot be o'erthrown; In the general ruin sure,

Storms and earthquakes it defies; Built immovably secure, Built eternal in the skies. 4 High on Immanuel's land We see the fabric stand: From a tottering world remove To our steadfast mansion there; Our inheritance above Cannot pass from heir to heir.

5 Those amaranthine bowers ( Unalienably ours) Bloom, our infinite reward, Rise, our permanent abode; From the founded world prepared; Purchased by the blood of God. 60 might we quickly find The place for us designed; See the long- expected day

Of our full redemption here; Let the shadows flee away,

Let the new- made world appear!

7 High on thy great white throne, 0 King of saints come down! In the new Jerusalem

Now triumphantly descend;

Let the final trump proclaim

Joys begun which ne'er shall end!

68

8s& 6s.

1

happy is the

H How free from every anxious thought,

From worldly hope and fear! Confined to neither court nor cell, His soul disdains on earth to dwell, He only sojourns here.

2 This happiness in part is mine, Already saved from self- design,

From every creature- love; Blest with the scorn of finite good, My soul is lightened of its load, And seeks the things above.

3 The things eternal I pursue, A happiness beyond the view of those that basely pant For things by nature felt and seen; Their honours, wealth, and pleasures mean I neither have nor want.

4 I have no babes to hold me here; But children more securely dear For mine I humbly claim, Better than daughters or than sons, Temples divine of living stones, Înscribed with Jesu's name.

5 No foot of land do I possess, No cottage in this wilderness, A poor wayfaring man, I lodge awhile in tents below; Or gladly wander to and fro, Till I my Canaan gain.

6 Nothing on earth I call my own; A stranger, to the world unknown, I all their goods despise;

I trample on their whole delight, And seek a country out of sight, A country in the skies.

7 There is my house and portion fair, My treasure and my heart are there, And my abiding home;

For me my elder brethren stay, And angels beckon me away,

And Jesus bids me come.

8 I come, thy servant, Lord, replies, I come to meet thee in the skies, And claim my heavenly rest; Now let the pilgrim's journey end, Now, O my Saviour, Brother, Friend, Receive me to thy breast!

69

THOU,

Lord, on whom I still depend, Shalt keep me faithful to the end; I trust thy truth, and love, and power Shall save me till my latest hour; And when I lay this body down, Reward with an immortal crown. 2 Jesus, in thy great name I go To conquer death, my final foe;

6-8 s.

1

Univ.- Bibl. Giessen

17