There is no grief in heaven; On golden pinions earthward glide, There is no sin in heaven; Behold that blessed throng; There is no death in heaven; And they can die no more. But when the Christian dies, The angels 'wait his parted soul, And waft it to the skies. NATURE OF HEAVEN. THE MOURNER'S HEAVEN. THOMAS H. GILL. "Make us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil." OW bright they bloom, those Heavenly Bowers, What sweetness from the unfading flowers O'er all their path is poured! That Heavenly Home-what joy is there For hearts with love that beat! But brightest, Lord, on weeping eyes Those golden gates, those smiling skies Thy mourners gladdest make. eager to the Realm of Rest The weary pilgrims come; What hearts, like hearts forlorn, are blest The memory of these mournful years The heavenly joy fulfils; More sad and lone the Vale of Tears, More bright the Eternal Hills. THE LAND BEYOND THE SEA. FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER. HE Land beyond the Sea! ΤΗ When will life's task be o'er? When shall we reach that soft blue shore, O'er the dark strait whose billows foam and roar? When shall we come to thee, Calm Land beyond the Sea? The Land beyond the Sea! How close it often seems, When flushed with evening's peaceful gleams; It longs to fly to thee, Calm Land beyond the Sea! The Land beyond the Sea! And the gulf narrows to a threadlike mere ; We seem half way to thee, Calm Land beyond the Sea! The Land beyond the Sea! Sometimes across the strait, Like a drawbridge to a castle gate, The slanting sunbeams lie, and seem to wait For us to pass to thee, Calm Land beyond the Sea! The Land beyond the Sea! Oh how the lapsing years, Mid our not unsubmissive tears, Have borne, now singly, now in fleets, the biers Of those we love to thee, Calm Land beyond the Sea! The Land beyond the Sea! The Land beyond the Sea! When will our toil be done? Calm Land beyond the Sea! The Land beyond the Sea! Why fadest thou in light? Why art thou better seen towards night? Dear Land! look always plain, look always bright, That we may gaze on thee, Calm Land beyond the Sea! The Land beyond the Sea! But sweeter far that Father's Breast Upon thy shores eternally possest; For Jesus reigns o'er thee, Calm Land beyond the Sea! HEAVEN IN SONG. THE SHORE OF ETERNITY. FREDERICK WILLIAM FAber. ALONE! to land alone upon that shore! Things of a different hue, And the sounds all new, seen before, And fragrances so sweet the soul may faint. Alone! to land alone upon that shore! Perhaps no sight or sound, No forms of earth our fancies to arrange,— Alone! to land alone upon that shore! None with us to attend Our disembarking on that awful strand, Alone! to land alone upon that shore! The manners or the speech Of that new life, or put us at our ease:- |