When languor and disease invade
This trembling house of clay,
‘Tis sweet to look beyond our cage,
And long to fly away.
Sweet to look inward and attend
The whispers of His love
Sweet to look upward to the place
Where Jesus pleads above.
Sweet to look back and see my name
In life’s fair book set down;
Sweet to look forward and behold
Eternal joys my own.
Sweet to reflect how grace divine
My sins on Jesus laid;
Sweet to remember that His blood
My debt of suffering paid.
Sweet on His righteousness to stand,
Which saves from second death;
Sweet to experience, day by day,
His Spirit’s quick’ning breath.
Sweet on His faithfulness to rest,
Whose love can never end;
Sweet on His covenant of grace
For all things to depend.
Sweet is the confidence of faith,
To trust His firm decrees;
Sweet to lie passive in His hand,
And know no will but His.
Sweet to rejoice in lively hope;
That when my change shall come,
Angels shall hover round my bed,
And waft my spirit home!
If such the views which grace unfolds,
Weak as it is below,
What rapture must the church above
In Jesu’s presence know!
If such the sweetness of the stream,
What must the fountain be,
Where saints and angels draw their bliss
Immediately from Thee!