“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.
Nearer home, nearer home,
A day's march nearer home.
My Father's house on high,
Home of my soul; how near
At times to faith's foreseeing eye
Thy golden gates appear!
Ah, then my spirit faints
To reach the land I love;
The bright inheritance of saints,
Jerusalem above.
Nearer home, nearer home,
A day's march nearer home.
Yet clouds will intervene,
And all my prospect flies;
Like Noah's dove, I flit between
Rough seas and stormy skies.
Anon the clouds depart,
The winds and waters cease;
While sweetly o'er my gladdened heart
Expands the bow of peace,
Nearer home, nearer home,
A day's march nearer home.
I hear at morn and even,
At noon and midnight hour—
The choral harmonies of heaven
Earth's Babel-tongues o'erpower —
That resurrection word,
That shout of victory,
Once more: "For ever with the Lord! "
Amen, so let it be!
Nearer home, nearer home,
A day's march nearer home.