286

The trumpet sounds; the graves restore
The dead which they contained before;
Prepare, my soul, to meet him.

2 The dead in Christ shall first arise,
At the last trumpet's sounding;
Caught up to meet him in the skies,
With joy their Lord surrounding;
No gloomy fears their souls dismay;
His presence sheds eternal day

On those prepared to meet him.

3 But sinners, filled with guilty fears,
Behold his wrath prevailing;
For they shall rise, and find their tears
And sighs are unavailing;
The day of grace is past and gone;
Trembling they stand before the throne,
All unprepared to meet him.

4 Great God, what do I see and hear?
The end of things created!
The Judge of mankind doth appear,
On clouds of glory seated.
Low at his cross, I view the day

When heaven and earth shall pass away,
And thus prepare to meet him.

Bartholomäus Ringwaldt. 1585.
William Bengo Collyer. 1812.

87,87,47.

"Behold he cometh with clouds."

1 Lo, He comes, with clouds descending,
Once for favoured sinners slain;
Thousand thousand saints attending,
Swell the triumph of his train.

Hallelujah ;

God appears on earth to reign.

287

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 When the solemn trump has sounded,
Heaven and earth shall flee away;
All who hate him must, confounded,
Hear the trump proclaim the day,
Come to judgment,

Come to judgment, come away.

4 Now redemption, long expected,
See in solemn pomp appear;
All his saints, by man rejected,
Now shall meet him in the air.
Hallelujah ;

See the day of God appear.

John Cennick. 1752.
Charles Wesley. 1758.
Martin Madan. 1760.

XIV.-HEAVEN.

88,88,88,88.

"Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God."

1 AWAY with our sorrow and fear,
We soon shall recover our home,
The city of saints shall appear;
The day of eternity come:
From earth we shall quickly remove,
And mount to our native abode,
The house of our Father above,
The palace of angels and God.

2 Our mourning is all at an end
When, raised by the life-giving word,
We see the new city descend,

Adorned as a bride for her Lord;
The city so holy and clean,

No sorrow can breathe in the air;
No gloom of affliction or sin,
No shadow of evil is there.

3 By faith we already behold
That lovely Jerusalem here;
Her walls are of jasper and gold,
As crystal her buildings are clear:
Immovably founded in grace,

She stands, as she ever hath stood,
And brightly her Builder displays,
And flames with the glory of God.

4 No need of the sun in that day

Which never is followed by night,
Where Jesus's beauties display
A pure and a permanent light:
The Lamb is their light and their sun,
And, lo, by reflection they shine,
With Jesus ineffably one,

And bright in effulgence divine.

288

1

2

Charles Wesley. 1744.

S.M.

"So shall we ever be with the Lord."

'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.

289

3

My Father's house on high,
Home of my soul, how near,

At times, to faith's foreseeing eye
Thy golden gates appear.

1 I WOULD not live alway: I ask not to stay
Where storm after storm rises dark o'er the way;
The few lurid mornings that dawn on us here
Are enough for life's woes, full enough for its cheer.
2 I would not live alway, thus fettered by sin,
Temptation without and corruption within;
Even the rapture of pardon is mingled with fears,
And the cup of thanksgiving with penitent tears.
3 I would not live alway; no, welcome the tomb;
Since Jesus hath lain there, I dread not its gloom;
There sweet be my rest till he bid me arise
To hail him in triumph descending the skies.

4 Who, who would live alway, away from his God, Away from yon heaven, that blissful abode, Where the rivers of pleasure flow o'er the bright plains,

And the noontide of glory eternally reigns;

5 Where the saints of all ages in harmony meet, Their Saviour and brethren transported to greet; While the anthems of rapture unceasingly roll, And the smile of the Lord is the feast of the soul. William Augustus Mühlenberg. 1823.

290

C.M.

"The holy city, new Jerusalem.”

1 JERUSALEM, my happy home,

Name ever dear to me,

When shall my labours have an end
In joy, and peace, and thee?

2 When shall these eyes thy heaven-built walls And pearly gates behold,

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

3 There happier bowers than Eden's bloom,
Nor sin nor sorrow know;

Blessed seats, through rude and stormy scenes
I onward press to you.

4 Why should I shrink at pain and woe,
Or feel at death dismay?
I've Canaan's goodly land in view,
And realms of endless day.

5 Apostles, martyrs, prophets, 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 labours have an end,
When I thy joys shall see.

291.

Eckington Collection. c. 1790.

"That great city, the holy Jerusalem.”

1 JERUSALEM, my happy home,
When shall I come to thee ?

When shall my sorrows have an end?
Thy joys when shall I see?

C.M.