Introduction

Words: Is­aac Watts, Hymns and Spi­ri­tu­al Songs 1707, Book 2, num­ber 66. A pros­pect of Hea­ven makes death ea­sy.

Music: As­crip­tion Lu­ther O. Em­er­son, 1866 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

• Beulah, George M. Gar­rett, 1889 (🔊 pdf nwc)
• Mendip, Eng­lish tra­di­tion­al tune (🔊 pdf nwc)
• Oakley, Will­iam H. Oak­ley, 1875 (🔊 pdf nwc)
• Punta Ca­na, Charles B. Holmes, in Win­dows of Hea­ven, new edi­tion, ed­it­ed by Hen­ry M. Whar­ton & P. W. Bush (Bal­ti­more, Mar­y­land: New Ev­an­gel­i­za­tion So­ci­e­ty, 1898), num­ber 94 (🔊, pdf & nwc [with lyr­ics], pdf & nwc [mu­sic on­ly]).
• Varina, Jo­hann C. H. Rinck (1770–1846), ar­ranged by George F. Root, 1849 (🔊 pdf nwc)

According to tra­di­tion it came to [Watts] one sum­mer day while he was gaz­ing across the gulf-ri­ver, South­ampton Wa­ter; and the plea­sant fields near Net­ley are said to have sug­gest­ed the sweet fields be­yond the swell­ing flood.

That the hymn was pro­duced about this time is cer­tain. It can­not be as­signed to an ear­li­er date, for it is one of Watts’ most per­fect prod­uct­ions, and the work was of no pren­tice hand. Then, too, it must have been writ­ten in the sum­mer, and at a time when its au­thor was out of health, and prob­ab­ly oft­en in pain.

Wright, p. 70

Oh, I do not know how we shall stand the first day in hea­ven. Do you not think we will break down in the song from ov-er-de­light? I once gave out in church the hymn:

There is a land of pure delight
Where saints immortal reign,

And an aged man stand­ing in front of the pul­pit sang hear­ti­ly the first verse, and then he sat down weep­ing. I said to him af­ter­ward, Fa-ther Lin­ton, what made you cry over that hymn? He said, I could not stand it—the joys that are com­ing.

T. Dewitt Talmage. [1832–1902], quoted in Crafts, p. 117