1. HIGH in yonder realms of light,
Dwell the raptured saints above;
Far beyond our feeble sight,
Happy in Immanuel's love:
Once they knew, like us below,
Pilgrims in this vale of tears,
Torturing pain and heavy woe,
Gloomy doubts, distressing fears.
2. Oft the big, unbidden tear,
Stealing down the furrowed cheek,
Told, in eloquence sincere,
Tales of woe they could not speak.
But these days of weeping o'er,
Passed this scene of toil and pain,
They shall feel distress no more-
Never, never weep again.
3. 'Mid the chorus of the skies,
'Mid th' angelic lyres above,
Hark, their songs melodious rise,
Songs of praise to Jesus' love!
Happy spirits, ye are fled
Where no grief can entrance find
Lulled to rest the aching head,
Soothed the anguish of the mind.
4. All is tranquil and serene,
Calm and undisturbed repose;
There no cloud can intervene,
There no angry tempest blows;
Every tear is wiped away,
Sighs no more shall heave the breast,
Night is lost in endless day,
Sorrow-in eternal rest.
1. "SPIRIT, leave thy house of clay;
Ling'ring dust, resign thy breath;
Spirit, cast thy chains away;
Dust, be thou dissolved in death!"-
Thus the mighty Saviour speaks,
While the faithful Christian dies;
Thus the bonds of life He breaks,
And the ransomed captive flies.
2. "Prisoner, long detained below,
Prisoner, now with freedom blest,
Welcome from a world of woe;
Welcome to a land of rest:"-
Thus the choir of angels sing,
As they bear the soul on high,
While with hallelujahs ring
All the regions of the sky.
3. Grave! the guardian of our dust,
Grave! the treasury of the skies,
Every atom of thy trust
Rests in hope again to rise!
Hark! the judgment-trumpet calls-
"Soul, rebuild thy house of clay;
Immortality thy walls,
And eternity thy day."
1. DAY of wrath, that day of burning,
All shall melt to ashes turning,
All foretold by seers discerning.
O! what fear it shall engender
When the Judge shall come in splendor
Strict to mark and just to render.
2. Trumpet-scattered sound of wonder,
Rending sepulchers asunder,
Shall resistless summon thunder.
All aghast then Death shall shiver,
And great Nature's frame shall quiver,
When the
graves their dead deliver.
3. Think, O Jesus, for what reason,
Thou endured'st earth's spite and treason,
Nor me lose in that dread season.
Seeking me Thy worn feet hasted,
On the cross Thy soul death tasted,
Let such labor not be wasted.
4. Righteous Judge of retribution,
Grant me perfect absolution,
Ere that day of execution.
Culprit-like, I-heart all broken,
On my cheek shame's crimson token-
Plead the pardoning word be spoken.
5. 'Mid the sheep a place decide me,
And from goats on left divide me,
Standing on the right beside Thee.
When th' accursed away are driven,
To eternal burnings given,
Call me with the blest to Heaven.
6. I beseech Thee, prostrate lying,
Heart as ashes, contrite, sighing,
Care for me when I am dying.
On that awful day of wailing,
When man rising, stands before Thee,
Spare the culprit, God of glory!
Signs and wonders there shall be;
Earth shall quake with inward wars,
Nations with perplexity.
2. Soon shall ocean's hoary deep,
Tossed with stronger tempests, rise;
Wilder storms the mountains sweep,
Louder thunder rock the skies.
3. Dread alarms shall shake the proud,
Pale amazement, restless fear;
And amid the thunder cloud
Shall the Judge of man appear.
4. But, though from His awful face,
Heaven shall fade, and earth shall fly;
Fear not ye, His chosen race,
Your redemption draweth nigh.
1. SAVIOUR, now receive him
To Thy bosom mild;
For with Thee we leave him,
Blessed, blessed child.
2. Though his eye hath brightened
Oft our weary way,
And his clear laugh lightened
Half our heart's dismay;
3. Now let thought behold him
In his angel rest,
Where those arms enfold him
To a Saviour's breast.
4. Yield we what was given,
At Thy holy call;
The beautiful to heaven,
Thou who givest all!
5. Still 'mid heavy mourning,
Look thee now to God!
There, thy spirit turning,
Kneel beside the sod.
1. WITH silence only as their benediction, God's angels come,
Where, in the shadow of a great affliction,
The soul sits dumb.
2. Yet would we say what every heart approvethOur Father's will,
Calling to Him the dear ones whom he loveth,
3. Not upon us or ours the solemn angel
Hath evil wrought;
The funeral anthem is a glad evangel;
The good die not!
4. God calls our loved ones, but we lose not wholly What He has given;
They live on earth in thought and deed, as truly
As in His heaven.
1. THIS place is holy ground;
World, with its cares, away!
A holy, solemn stillness round
This lifeless, moldering clay;
Nor pain, nor grief, nor anxious fear
Can reach the peaceful sleeper here.
2. Behold the bed of death-
The pale and mortal clay;
Heard ye the sob of parting breath?
Marked ye the eye's last ray?
No: life so sweetly ceased to be,
It lapsed in immortality.
3. Why mourn the pious dead?
Why sorrows swell our eyes?
Can sighs recall the spirit fled?
Shall vain regrets arise?
Though death has caused this altered mein,
In heaven the ransomed soul is seen.
4. Bury the dead and weep
In stillness o'er the loss;
Bury the dead! in Christ they sleep,
Who bore on earth His cross;
And from the grave their dust shall rise,
In His own image to the skies.
1. FRIEND 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 only rest,
Living or dying, none were blest.
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