“WHO are these who come amongst us,
Strangers to our speech and ways?
Passing by our joys and treasures,
Singing in the darkest days?
Are they pilgrims journeying on
From a land we have not known?”
We are come from a far country,
From a land beyond the sun;
We are come from that great glory
Round our God's eternal throne:
Thence we come, and thither go;
Here no resting-place we know.
Far within the depth of glory,
In the Father's house above,
We have learned His wondrous secret,
We have learned His heart of love:
We have seen and we have shared
That bright joy He hath prepared.
We have seen the golden city
Shining as the jasper stone;
Heard the song that fills the heavens
Of the Man upon the throne;
Well that glorious One we know—
He hath sent us here below.
We have drunk the living waters,
On the Tree of Life have fed;
Therefore deathless do we journey
'Midst the dying and the dead;
And unthirsting do we stand
Here amidst the barren sand.
Round us, as a cloud of glory
Lighting up the midnight road,
Falls the light from that bright city,
Showing us where He has trod;
All that here might please the sight
Lost in that eternal light.
“Wherefore are ye come amongst us
From the glory to the gloom?"
Christ in glory breathed within us
Life, His life, and bid us come.
Here as living springs to be—
Fountains of that life are we.
Fountains of the life that floweth
Ever downwards from the throne,
Witnesses of that bright glory
Where, rejected, He is gone,
Sent to give the blind their sight,
Turn the darkness into light.
There, amidst the joy eternal,
Is the Man who went above,
Bearing marks of all the hatred
Of the world He sought in love.
He has sent us here to tell
Of His love unchangeable.
He hath sent us, that in sorrow,
In rejection, toil, and loss,
We may learn the wondrous sweetness,
Learn the mystery of His cross—
Learn the depth of love that traced
That blest path across the waste.
He hath sent us highest honors
Of His cross and shame to win,
Bear His light through deepest darkness,
Walk in white 'midst foulest sin;
Sing amidst the wintry gloom,
Sing the blessed songs of home.
From the dark and troubled waters
Many a pearl to Him we bear;
Golden sheaves we bring with singing,
Fullness of His joy we share;
And our pilgrim journey o'er,
Praise with Him for evermore.
T. P.