Hymnal: A Selection of Christian Hymns
Date: 1818
Compiler: Rice Haggard
Publisher/Printer: John Norvell
First Line: My thoughts that often mount the skies
Topic: Funeral Hymns
Writer: <no first name given> <no last name given>
Composer:
Meter: CM
Tune:
Hymn Number: 159
Page Number: 159, click to see hymnal pages
LyicsMy thoughts, that often mount the skies,
Go, search the world beneath,
Where nature all in ruin lies,
And owns her sovereign, death.
The tyrant, how he triumphs here,
His trophies spread around!
And heaps of dust and bones appear,
Thro' all the hollow ground.
These skulls, what ghastly figures now!
How loathsome to the eyes!
These are the heads we lately knew,
So beauteous and so wise.
But where the souls, those deathless things,
That left their dying clay?
My thoughts, now stretch out all your wings,
And trace eternity!
O that unfathomable sea!
Those deeps without a shore!
Where living waters gently play,
Or fiery billows roar.
There we shall swim in heavenly bliss,
Or sink in flaming waves,
While the pale carcase breathless lies
Among the silent graves.
"Prepare us, Lord, for thy right hand,
"Then come the joyful day.
"Come, death, and some celestial band,
"To bear our souls away."