THE WORLD is very evil, | |
| The times are waxing late; | |
| Be sober and keep vigil, | |
| The Judge is at the gate,— | |
| The Judge that comes in mercy, | 5 |
| The Judge that comes with might, | |
| To terminate the evil, | |
| To diadem the right. | |
| When the just and gentle Monarch | |
| Shall summon from the tomb, | 10 |
| Let man, the guilty, tremble, | |
| For Man, the God, shall doom! | |
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| Arise, arise, good Christian, | |
| Let right to wrong succeed; | |
| Let penitential sorrow | 15 |
| To heavenly gladness lead,— | |
| To the light that hath no evening, | |
| That knows nor moon nor sun, | |
| The light so new and golden, | |
| The light that is but one. | 20 |
| |
| And when the Sole-Begotten | |
| Shall render up once more | |
| The kingdom to the Father, | |
| Whose own it was before, | |
| Then glory yet unheard of | 25 |
| Shall shed abroad its ray, | |
| Resolving all enigmas, | |
| An endless Sabbath-day. | |
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| For thee, O dear, dear Country! | |
| Mine eyes their vigils keep; | 30 |
| For very love, beholding | |
| Thy happy name, they weep. | |
| The mention of thy glory | |
| Is unction to the breast, | |
| And medicine in sickness, | 35 |
| And love, and life, and rest. | |
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| O one, O only Mansion! | |
| O Paradise of Joy, | |
| Where tears are ever banished, | |
| And smiles have no alloy! | 40 |
| Beside thy living waters | |
| All plants are, great and small, | |
| The cedar of the forest, | |
| The hyssop of the wall; | |
| With jaspers glow thy bulwarks, | 45 |
| Thy streets with emeralds blaze, | |
| The sardius and the topaz | |
| Unite in thee their rays; | |
| Thine ageless walls are bonded | |
| With amethyst unpriced; | 50 |
| Thy Saints build up its fabric, | |
| And the corner-stone is Christ. | |
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| The Cross is all thy splendor, | |
| The Crucified thy praise; | |
| His laud and benediction | 55 |
| Thy ransomed people raise: | |
| “Jesus, the gem of Beauty, | |
| True God and Man,” they sing, | |
| “The never-failing Garden, | |
| The ever-golden Ring; | 60 |
| The Door, the Pledge, the Husband, | |
| The Guardian of his Court; | |
| The Day-star of Salvation, | |
| The Porter and the Port!” | |
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| Thou hast no shore, fair ocean! | 65 |
| Thou hast no time, bright day! | |
| Dear fountain of refreshment | |
| To pilgrims far away! | |
| Upon the Rock of Ages | |
| They raise thy holy tower; | 70 |
| Thine is the victor’s laurel, | |
| And thine the golden dower! | |
| |
| Thou feel’st in mystic rapture, | |
| O Bride that know’st no guile, | |
| The Prince’s sweetest kisses, | 75 |
| The Prince’s loveliest smile; | |
| Unfading lilies, bracelets | |
| Of living pearl thine own; | |
| The Lamb is ever near thee, | |
| The Bridegroom thine alone. | 80 |
| The Crown is he to guerdon, | |
| The Buckler to protect, | |
| And he himself the Mansion, | |
| And he the Architect. | |
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| The only art thou needest— | 85 |
| Thanksgiving for thy lot; | |
| The only joy thou seekest— | |
| The Life where Death is not. | |
| And all thine endless leisure, | |
| In sweetest accents, sings | 90 |
| The ill that was thy merit, | |
| The wealth that is thy King’s! | |
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| Jerusalem the golden, | |
| With milk and honey blest, | |
| Beneath thy contemplation | 95 |
| Sink heart and voice oppressed. | |
| I know not, O I know not, | |
| What social joys are there! | |
| What radiancy of glory, | |
| What light beyond compare! | 100 |
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| And when I fain would sing them, | |
| My spirit fails and faints; | |
| And vainly would it image | |
| The assembly of the Saints. | |
| |
| They stand, those halls of Zion, | 105 |
| Conjubilant with song, | |
| And bright with many an angel, | |
| And all the martyr throng; | |
| The Prince is ever in them, | |
| The daylight is serene; | 110 |
| The pastures of the Blessèd | |
| Are decked in glorious sheen. | |
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| There is the Throne of David, | |
| And there, from care released, | |
| The song of them that triumph, | 115 |
| The shout of them that feast; | |
| And they who, with their Leader, | |
| Have conquered in the fight, | |
| Forever and forever | |
| Are clad in robes of white! | 120 |
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| O holy, placid harp-notes | |
| Of that eternal hymn! | |
| O sacred, sweet reflection, | |
| And peace of Seraphim! | |
| O thirst, forever ardent, | 125 |
| Yet evermore content! | |
| O true peculiar vision | |
| Of God cunctipotent! | |
| Ye know the many mansions | |
| For many a glorious name, | 130 |
| And divers retributions | |
| That divers merits claim; | |
| For midst the constellations | |
| That deck our earthly sky, | |
| This star than that is brighter— | 135 |
| And so it is on high. | |
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| Jerusalem the glorious! | |
| The glory of the Elect! | |
| O dear and future vision | |
| That eager hearts expect! | 140 |
| Even now by faith I see thee, | |
| Even here thy walls discern; | |
| To thee my thoughts are kindled, | |
| And strive, and pant, and yearn. | |
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| Jerusalem the only, | 145 |
| That look’st from heaven below, | |
| In thee is all my glory, | |
| In me is all my woe; | |
| And though my body may not, | |
| My spirit seeks thee fain, | 150 |
| Till flesh and earth return me | |
| To earth and flesh again. | |
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| O none can tell thy bulwarks, | |
| How gloriously they rise! | |
| O none can tell thy capitals | 155 |
| Of beautiful device! | |
| Thy loveliness oppresses | |
| All human thought and heart; | |
| And none, O peace, O Zion, | |
| Can sing thee as thou art! | 160 |
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| New mansion of new people, | |
| Whom God’s own love and light | |
| Promote, increase, make holy, | |
| Identify, unite! | |
| Thou City of the Angels! | 165 |
| Thou City of the Lord! | |
| Whose everlasting music | |
| Is the glorious decachord! | |
| |
| And there the band of Prophets | |
| United praise ascribes, | 170 |
| And there the twelvefold chorus | |
| Of Israel’s ransomed tribes. | |
| The lily-beds of virgins, | |
| The roses’ martyr-glow, | |
| The cohort of the Fathers | 175 |
| Who kept the faith below. | |
| |
| And there the Sole-Begotten | |
| Is Lord in regal state,— | |
| He, Judah’s mystic Lion, | |
| He, Lamb Immaculate. | 180 |
| O fields that know no sorrow! | |
| O state that fears no strife! | |
| O princely bowers! O land of flowers! | |
| O realm and home of Life! | |
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| Jerusalem, exulting | 185 |
| On that securest shore, | |
| I hope thee, wish thee, sing thee, | |
| And love thee evermore! | |
| I ask not for my merit, | |
| I seek not to deny | 190 |
| My merit is destruction, | |
| A child of wrath am I; | |
| But yet with faith I venture | |
| And hope upon my way; | |
| For those perennial guerdons | 195 |
| I labor night and day. | |
| |
| The best and dearest Father, | |
| Who made me and who saved, | |
| Bore with me in defilement, | |
| And from defilement laved, | 200 |
| When in his strength I struggle, | |
| For very joy I leap, | |
| When in my sin I totter, | |
| I weep, or try to weep: | |
| Then grace, sweet grace celestial, | 205 |
| Shall all its love display, | |
| And David’s Royal Fountain | |
| Purge every sin away. | |
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| O mine, my golden Zion! | |
| O lovelier far than gold, | 210 |
| With laurel-girt battalions, | |
| And safe victorious fold! | |
| O sweet and blessèd Country, | |
| Shall I ever see thy face? | |
| O sweet and blessèd Country, | 215 |
| Shall I ever win thy grace? | |
| I have the hope within me | |
| To comfort and to bless! | |
| Shall I ever win the prize itself? | |
| O tell me, tell me, Yes! | 220 |
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| Exult! O dust and ashes! | |
| The Lord shall be thy part; | |
| His only, his forever, | |
| Thou shalt be, and thou art! | |
| Exult, O dust and ashes! | 225 |
| The Lord shall be thy part; | |
| His only, his forever, | |
| Thou shalt be, and thou art! | |
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