THE WORLD TO COME

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 30, 1867

THE WORLD TO COME.

AIR.—“They say the world is beautiful.”

THEY say there is a world to come, More fair and bright than this, Where storms and night are never known, And all have perfect bliss: That hill and plain, to either shore, Are spread with changeless green, And never, ’mid its lovely bowers, A fading flower is seen.

They say that world is beautiful— Too fair for mortal eyes— That one eternal, glorious day, Is on its soft blue skies. And they are like the angels made, Who gain that peaceful shore, And never sigh or weep again, And they shall die no more.

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

And all the goodly things it bears, They say for all are free— That every ear its music hears, And all its beauty see. There none in loneliness shall pine, Or strangers weary roam; One family they gather there, Within one happy home.

A glorious city, too, is there— It hath not even’s pale lights, Nor yet the sun’s bright golden ray Gleams o’er its dazzling hights. 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 shall be In that bright “world to come” But they, the pure and lowly ones, Who here as pilgrims roam; That only those who now endure In meekness, grief, and shame, Shall enter, through the gates of pearl, “The New Jerusalem.”