Jerusalem! High Tower Thy Glorious Walls!

Jerusalem! high tow­er thy glo­ri­ous walls!

Would God I were in thee!

Desire of thee my long­ing heart en­thralls

Desire at home to be:

Wide from the world out-leap­ing

O’er hill and vale and plain

My soul’s strong wing is sweep­ing

Thy por­tals to at­tain.

O glad­some day

and yet more glad­some hour!

When shall that hour have come

When my re­joic­ing soul its own free pow­er

May use in go­ing home?

Itself to Je­sus giv­ing

In trust to His own hand

To dwell among the liv­ing

In that blest Fa­ther­land.

A mo­ment’s time

the twink­ling of an eye

Shall be enough

to soar

In buoy­ant ex­ul­ta­tion

through the sky

And reach the heav’n­ly shore.

Elijah’s cha­ri­ot bring­ing

The home­ward tra­vel­er there;

Glad troops of an­gels wing­ing

It on­ward through the air.

Great fast­ness thou of hon­or! thee I greet!

Throw wide thy gra­cious gate

An en­trance free to give these long­ing feet;

At last re­leased

though late

From wretch­ed­ness and sin­ning

And life’s long wea­ry way;

And now

of God’s gift

win­ning

Eternity’s bright day.

What throng is this

what no­ble troop

that pours

Arrayed in beau­te­ous guise

Out through the glo­ri­ous ci­ty’s op­en doors

To greet my won­der­ing eyes?

The host of Christ’s elect­ed

The jew­els that He bears

In His own crown

se­lect­ed

To wipe away my tears.

Of pro­phets great

and pa­tri­archs high

a band

That once has borne the cross

With all the com­pa­ny that won that land

By count­ing gain for loss

Now float in free­dom’s light­ness

From ty­rant’s chains set free;

And shine like suns in bright­ness

Arrayed to wel­come me.

One more at last ar­rived they wel­come there

To beau­te­ous para­dise;

Where sense can scarce its full fru­ition bear

Or tongue for praise suf­fice;

Glad hal­le­lu­jahs ring­ing

With rap­tur­ous re­bound

And rich ho­san­nahs sing­ing

Eternity’s long round.

Unnumbered choirs be­fore the Lamb’s high throne

There shout the ju­bi­lee

With loud re­sound­ing peal and sweet­est tone

In bliss­ful ec­sta­sy;

A hun­dred thou­sand voices

Take up the won­drous song;

Eternity re­joic­es

God’s prais­es to pro­long.