God calls us onward, brethren,
Eternal day to share;
Though long the night of sorrow,
Emmanuel's land is fair.
Take heart, then, weary pilgrim,
In Christ thou art complete:
From strength to strength press onward,
Thy rest comes sure and sweet.
With Him, press on rejoicing
Where Jesus' feet have trod;
We know the Voice that bids us
Look upward unto God.
On! while we wait in patience
For God's dear Son to come,
With face toward the glory
Of our eternal home.
We soon, with voice triumphant,
Shall leave this land of night.
And rise to meet our Saviour,
Far upward into light.
With such a hope before us,
Let praises ever ring,
With eyes of faith beholding
Our Prophet, Priest, and King.
No darkness now before us,
Light all around us glows,
For Christ, who knows our weakness,
Abundant strength bestows.
His grace it is that keeps us
While we this desert roam,
And grace 'twill be that brings us
To our eternal home.
We walk, with life supernal,
The narrow path of God-
Not where the flesh finds pleasure,
But where our Captain's trod.
Tis Him we now do follow-
No more sin's fettered slaves;
But leaving self in judgment
We pass through Jordan's waves!
By Him we have been quickened
From the dying and the dead,
And in the heavens are seated
In Him, the Christ, our Head;
That in the coming ages,
He might to worlds display
His deep eternal pleasure,
In vessels wrought from clay.
We haste, then, through the desert,
Through sunshine or through gloom,
Nor pluck the wayside flowers
That in our pathway bloom.
For evening shades are falling
E'er breaks Eternal Day;
From mourning or from feasting,
Come, pilgrims-come away!
We'll run the race with patience,
E'en though our feet be torn:
Our Captain trod before us
A path beset with thorn.
Then sing our heart-sing ever!
Our Jesus leads His own.
All hail! O golden City,
To which we soon shall come!
F. H. J.