For Ever with the Lord

1. For ever with the Lord!
Amen, so let it be;
Life from the dead is in that word,
'Tis immortality;
Here in the body pent,
Absent from Him I roam,
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent,
A day's march nearer home.

2. My Father's house on high,
Home of my soul, how near
At times to faith's foreseeing eye
Thy golden gates appear!
Ah, then my spirit faints
To reach the land I love;
The bright inheritance of saints,
Jerusalem above.

3. Yet clouds will intervene,
And all my prospect flies;
Like Noah's dove, I flit between
Rough seas and stormy skies.
Anon the clouds depart,
The winds and waters cease;
While sweetly o'er my gladdened heart
Expands the bow of peace.

4. I hear at morn and even,
At noon and midnight hour
The choral harmonies of heaven
Earth's Babel-tongues o'er power.
That resurrection word,
That shout of victory,
Once more: For ever with the Lord!
Amen, so let it be!