" Who are these who come amongst us,
Strangers to our speech and ways?
Passing by our joys and treasures,
Singing in the darkest days?
Are they pilgrims journeying on
From a land we have not known?"
We are come front a far country,
From a land beyond the sun;
We are come from that great glory,
Round our God's eternal throne:
Thence we come and thither -go,
Here no resting-place we know.
For within that depth of glory,
In the Father's house above,
We have learned His wondrous secret,
We have learned His heart of love;
We have seen and we have heard
That bright joy He hath prepared.
We have seen the golden city
Shining as the jasper stone;
Heard the song that fills the heavens
Of the Man upon the throne-
Well that glorious One we know,.
He has sent, us here below.
We have drunk the living waters,
On the Tree of Life have fed;
Therefore deathless do we journey,
Midst the dying and the dead;
And untwisting do we stand
Here amidst the barren sand.
Round us, as a cloud of glory
Lighting up the midnight road,
Falls the light from that bright city,
Showing us where He has trod,
All that here might please thy sight,
Lost in that eternal light.
" Wherefore are ye come among us,
From. the glory to the gloom?"
Christ in glory breathed within us
Life-His life, and bid us come,
Here as living springs to be-
Fountains of that life are we.
Fountains of that life that floweth
Ever downwards from the throne,
Witnesses of that bright glory
Where rejected, Ηe is gone.
Sent to give the blind their sight,
Turn the darkness into light.
There amidst the joy eternal,
Is the Man who went above,
Bearing marks of all the hatred
Of the world He sought in love.
He has sent us here to tell
That His love is changeless still:
He has sent us, that in sorrow
And in suffering, toil and loss,
We may learn the wondrous sweetness,
The deep mystery of His cress,
Learn-the depths of love that traced
That blest path across the waste.
From the dark and troubled waters
Many a pearl to Him we hear,
Golden sheaves we bring with singing,
All his depths of joy we share,
And our pilgrim journey O’er,
Praise with Him forever more!