Scripture Verse

It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. Revelation 21:11

Introduction

portrait
Johann M. Meyfart (1590–1642)

Words: Jo­hann M. Mey­fart, Tu­ba No­vis­si­ma (Co­burg, Ger­ma­ny: 1626) (Je­ru­sa­lem, du hoch­ge­baute Stadt). Trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to En­glish by Will­iam R. Whit­ting­ham, Hymns for Church and Home (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: J. B. Lip­pin­cott, 1861), num­ber 414.

Music: Whittingham Ho­ra­tio W. Par­ker, 1887 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Horatio W. Parker (1863–1919)

Lyrics

Jerusalem! high tow’r thy glo­ri­ous walls!
Would God I were in thee!
Desire of thee my long­ing heart en­thralls,
Desire at home to be:
Wide from the world out-leap­ing,
O’er hill and vale and plain,
My soul’s strong wing is sweep­ing,
Thy por­tals to at­tain.

O glad­some day, and yet more glad­some hour!
When shall that hour have come,
When my re­joic­ing soul its own free pow­er
May use in go­ing home?
Itself to Je­sus giv­ing,
In trust to His own hand,
To dwell among the liv­ing,
In that blest Fa­ther­land.

A mo­ment’s time, the twink­ling of an eye
Shall be enough, to soar
In buoy­ant ex­ul­ta­tion, through the sky
And reach the heav’n­ly shore.
Elijah’s cha­ri­ot bring­ing
The home­ward tra­vel­er there;
Glad troops of an­gels wing­ing
It on­ward through the air.

Great fast­ness thou of hon­or! thee I greet!
Throw wide thy gra­cious gate,
An en­trance free to give these long­ing feet;
At last re­leased, though late,
From wretch­ed­ness and sin­ning,
And life’s long wea­ry way;
And now, of God’s gift, win­ning
Eternity’s bright day.

What throng is this, what no­ble troop, that pours,
Arrayed in beau­te­ous guise,
Out through the glo­ri­ous ci­ty’s op­en doors,
To greet my won­der­ing eyes?
The host of Christ’s elect­ed,
The jew­els that He bears
In His own crown, se­lect­ed
To wipe away my tears.

Of pro­phets great, and pa­tri­archs high, a band
That once has borne the cross,
With all the com­pa­ny that won that land,
By count­ing gain for loss,
Now float in free­dom’s light­ness,
From ty­rant’s chains set free;
And shine like suns in bright­ness,
Arrayed to wel­come me.

One more at last ar­rived they wel­come there,
To beau­te­ous pa­ra­dise;
Where sense can scarce its full fru­ition bear
Or tongue for praise suf­fice;
Glad hal­le­lu­jahs ring­ing
With rap­tur­ous re­bound,
And rich ho­san­nahs sing­ing
Eternity’s long round.

Unnumbered choirs be­fore the Lamb’s high throne
There shout the ju­bi­lee,
With loud re­sound­ing peal and sweet­est tone,
In bliss­ful ec­sta­sy;
A hun­dred thou­sand voices
Take up the won­drous song;
Eternity re­joic­es
God’s prais­es to pro­long.