Scripture Verse

I go to prepare a place for you. John 14:2

Introduction

Words: Ce­cil F. Al­ex­an­der, 1852. Orig­in­al­ly ap­peared as The Eter­nal Gates Lift Up Their Heads in Hymns, by the So­cie­ty for Pro­mot­ing Chris­tian Know­ledge. Pub­lished in re­vised form in Al­ex­an­der’s Hymns Des­crip­tive and De­vo­tion­al, 1858.

Music: Mir­field Ar­thur Cott­man, 1872 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Cott­man (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Cecil F. Alexander (1818–1895)

Lyrics

The gold­en gates are lift­ed up,
The doors are op­ened wide;
The King of Glo­ry is gone in
Unto His Fa­ther’s side.

Thou art gone up be­fore us, Lord,
To make for us a place,
That we may be where now Thou art,
And look up­on God’s face.

And ev­er on our earth­ly path
A gleam of glo­ry lies,
A light still breaks be­hind the cloud
That veiled Thee from our eyes.

Lift up our hearts, lift up our minds:
Let Thy dear grace be giv’n;
That, while we wan­der here be­low,
Our trea­sure be in Heav’n.

That where Thou art, at God’s right hand,
Our hope, our love, may be:
Dwell Thou in us, that we may dwell
Forevermore in Thee.