Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ.
Philippians 1:23
Words: William Cowper (1731–1800), alt.
Music: Timna Lowell Mason, Carmina Sacra (Boston, Massachusetts: John H. Wilkins & Richard B. Carter, 1841), page 231 (🔊 pdf nwc).
To Jesus, the crown of my hope,
My soul is in haste to be gone:
O bear me, ye cherubim, up,
And waft me away to His throne.
My Savior, whom absent, I love;
Whom, not having seen, I adore;
Whose name is exalted above
All glory, dominion, and power:
Dissolve Thou these bonds that detain
My soul from her portion in Thee;
Ah! strike off this adamant chain,
And make me eternally free.
When that happy era begins,
When clad in Thy glories I shine,
Nor grieve any more, by my sins,
The bosom on which I recline:
O then shall the veil be removed,
And round me Thy brightness be poured:
I’ll meet Him whom absent I loved,
And see whom unseen I adored.
And then, never more shall the fears,
The trials, temptations, and woes,
Which darken this valley of tears,
Intrude on my blissful repose.
Or, if yet remembered above,
Remembrance no sadness shall raise;
They’ll be but new signs of Thy love,
New themes for my wonder and praise.
Thus strokes which from sin and from pain
Shall set me eternally free,
But strengthen and rivet the chain
Which binds me, my Savior, to Thee.