THE HEAVENLY STATE.

THE HOLY CHURCH INVISIBLE.

LYRA APOStolica.

'HE holy Jerusalem

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From highest heaven descending,

Is crowned with a diadem

Of angel bands attending :

The Living City built on high,

Light with celestial jewelry!

She comes the Bride, from Heaven's gate,

In nuptial new adorning,

To meet the Immaculate

Like coming of the morning.

Her streets of purest gold are made

Her walls, a diamond palisade.

There with pearls the gates are bright

Upon that Holy Mountain;

And thither come forth day and night, Who in the Living Fountain

Have washed their robes from earthly stain, And borne below Christ's lowly chain.

HEAVEN IN SONG.

By the hand of the Unknown,
The living stones are moulded
To a glorious shrine All One,
Full soon to be unfolded:

The building wherein God doth dwell,
The Holy Church Invisible.

Glory be to God, who laid

In heaven the foundation;

And to the Spirit who hath made
The walls of our salvation.

To Christ Himself, its Corner Stone;
Be glory to the Three in One.

THE SEAT OF GLORY.

CHARLES DRUMMOND.

F with such passing beauty, choice delights,
The Architect of this great round, did frame
This palace visible, short lists of fame,
And silly mansion of but dying wights;
How many wonders, what amazing lights,
Must that triumphing Seat of Glory claim,
That doth transcend all this All's vastly heights,
Of whose bright sun, ours here is but a beam!
O blest abode! O happy dwelling-place!
Where visibly th' Invisible doth reign;
Blest people, who do see true Beauty's face,

With whose far shadows, scarce He earth doth deign:
All Joy is but annoy, all concord strife,

Matched with your endless bliss and happy life.

IN BRIDAL BEAUTY DREST.

J. S. B. MONSell.

And I John saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.-REV. xxi. 3.

JE

ERUSALEM, the holy!
Jerusalem the blest!

From highest heav'n descending
In bridal beauty drest:
Bride of the Lamb! thy glory,

The light of God alone,
Shines through thee clear as crystal,

And like a jasper stone.

Thy walls are great and glorious;
Twelve pearls are thy twelve gates,
By every gate an angel

For holy service waits:

And names thereon are written,

Angelic hands inscribe

The tribes of Israel's children,

On every pearl a tribe.

And Twelve are thy foundations,

All precious stones most fair,

The names of the Apostles

Are ever in them there:

Of pure gold is the city,

And golden is the street, Like to clear glass transparent Beneath the saved ones' feet.

And therein is no temple,
No place apart for prayer,
For the Lord Almighty, and
The Lamb thy temple are:
No need of sun to lighten,

No need of moon to shine,
Thy sunshine is God's glory,
The Lamb thy Light Divine.

The nations of the savéd

Do walk there in thy light, Thy gates by day unclosed, Within thy walls no night: The kings of earth their glory,

The queens their state do bring, And lay them down in homage Before the glorious King.

There shall in no wise enter
The things that do defile,

That work abomination,

And spoil God's truth with guile. But those whose names are written In the Lamb's Book of Life,

They only shall be in thee,

Thou spotless Bride and Wife.

Jerusalem the holy!

My Spirit longs to be
Within thy walls of jasper,
Thy gates of pearl to see;
And through the sunless City
To walk thy streets of gold,
And in thy moonless beauty
God's glory to behold.

Give me, O Lord, the patience
To labor and endure,
And, that I may behold Thee,
Give me a heart that's pure:
Write Thine own Name upon it,
That, after earth's long strife,
My name may be found written
In the Lamb's Book of Life.

FOREVER WITH THE LORD.

JAMES MONTGOMERY.

OR ever with the Lord,"

"FOR

Amen. So let it be;

Life from the dead is in that word;

'T is immortality.

Here in the body pent,

Absent from Him I roam;

Yet nightly pitch my moving tent

A day's march nearer home.