The World to Come

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 20, 1866

The World to Come.

THEY say there is a world to come, More bright, more fair than this, Where storms and nights are never known, And all have perfect bliss. That hill, and vale, to either shore, Are clad in changeless green, And never 'mid those lovely bowers, One fading flower is seen.

They say that world is beautiful, Too fair for mortal eyes, That one eternal day is on Its soft and azure skies. And they are like the angels made, Who gain that peaceful shore, They'll never sigh nor weep again, And they can die no more.

And through the long bright summer year, Gay birds with silvery wing, Are flitting through the balmy air, And always sweetly sing. And living streams as crystals clear, In tuneful murmurs flow; And trees, whose leaves, the nations heal, Beside these waters grow.

And all the goodly things it bears, They say for all are free, That every ear its music hears, And all its beauties see. There none in loneliness shall pine, Nor strangers weary roam, One family they'll gather there, Within one happy home.

A glorious city, too, is there, It hath not gloom of night, For yet the sun's bright golden rays, Gleams o'er its dazzling hight. But one is there whose smile is light, And glory gilds his brow, And willing nations round his throne, In love's sweet homage bow.

But oh, they say that none can be In that bright world to come, But they, the pure, the lonely ones, That here in meekness roam. That only those who here endure, In meekness, grief, and shame, Can enter through those pearly gates, The New Jerusalem.