Scripture Verse

In my Father’s house are many mansions. John 14:2

Introduction

Words: Ed­la Poy­ry. Trans­lat­ed to Eng­lish by Her­mann H. M. Brueck­ner in the Am­eri­can Lu­ther­an Hym­nal, ed­it­ed by Em­ma­nu­el Pop­pen (Co­lum­bus, Ohio: Lu­ther­an Book Con­cern, 1930), number 303.

Music: Lång­fre­dag, Lång­fre­dag, from Da­lar­na, Swe­den (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know the orig­in­al lang­uage or ti­tle of this hymn, or where to get a good pho­to of Poy­ry or Brueck­ner (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

My beau­ti­ful home is in Hea­ven above;
I long its fair man­sions to en­ter.
This earth with its trea­sures has naught that I love,
My trea­sure awaits me in Hea­ven.
There all of my sor­rows shall van­ish for aye,
My ha­rass­ing cares shall no long­er hold sway;
My course I in faith shall have fin­ished.

Thro’ per­il­ous des­erts my path­way doth wind,
In val­leys of sor­row I wan­der;
The light of the sun on my jour­ney I find
By ga­ther­ing clouds ov­er­sha­dowed.
My way oft grows wea­ry, I lang­uish in tears,
Each mo­ment is threat­ened with tor­tur­ing fears
When al­so the tempt­er as­sails me.

But com­fort I have as I so­journ, in­deed;
The Lord is my faith­ful com­pan­ion.
My hand He has taken, me safe­ly to lead;
A help­er is He for the help­less.
If ev­er His help on my way I should miss,
My soul would be bur­ied in sor­row’s abyss;
In dark­ness I sure­ly would per­ish.

O won­der­ful bless­ing that Je­sus is mine,
That naught of His love can de­prive me!
What sol­ace in sor­row, what com­fort di­vine,
To know that God’s Son is my bro­ther!
Whatever the world now be­fore me shall lay,
I shall not es­teem it, but cast it away;
My far bet­ter portion is Je­sus.

All thanks and all glo­ry for aye shall be Thine,
O Lord, for Thy boun­te­ous mer­cy!
Do Thou but sus­tain me and ev­er be mine;
In faith let me take my de­par­ture
From all that this earth may of trea­sure con­tain,
And grant that with Thee I may ev­er re­main,
Sustained to the end by Thy Spir­it.