Hymnal: Christian Psalms and Hymns
Date: 1839
Compiler: Walter Scott and Silas Leonard
Publisher/Printer: A S Tilden
First Line: Nigh to a grave that was newly made
Topic: <no topic given>
Writer: <no first name given> <no last name given>
Composer:
Meter: 9s
Tune:
Hymn Number: 709
Page Number: 429, click to see hymnal pages
LyicsNigh to a grave that was newly made
Lean'd a Sexton old on his earth-worn spade;
His work was done and he paus'd to wait,
The funeral train, thro' the open gate.
A relic of by-gone days was he,
And his locks were white as the foamy sea;
And these words cam from his lips so thin,
I gather them in, I gather them in,
Gather, gather, gather, I gather them in.
I gather them in for man and boy,
Year after year of grief and joy;
I've builded the houses that lie all around,
In ev'ry nook of his burial ground;
Mother and daughter, father and son,
Come to my solitude one by one,
Or come they strangers, or come they kin,
I gather them in, I gather them in.
Many are with me but still I'm alone,
I'm the king of the dead, and I make my throne,
On a monument slab of marble cold;
And my sceptre of rule is the spade I hold.
Come they from cottage or come they from hall;
Mankind are my subjects all, all, all.
Let them loiter in pleasure or toilfully spin,
I gather them in, I gather them in.
I gather them in and their final rest,
Is here down in the Church Yard's breast,
The Sexton ceased: and the funeral train,
Wound mutely o'er that silent plain;
And I said to my heart, when time is told,
A mightier voice than that Sexton old
Will sound o'er that trump's dreadful din,
I gather them in, I gather them in,
Gather, gather, gather, I gather them in,