Reading: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” John 14:1–2

Great King of saints and angels bright

Who once didst dwell in clay,

Our battles thou didst bravely fight,

And thou hast gain’d the day.

 

For us a place thou didst prepare,

A city great and high,

Bright palaces, and mansions fair,

Beyond the sun and sky.

 

No man nor angel can describe

The joys that there abound;

Friendship is there, and happiness

In full perfection found.

 

Description fails, and boldest thought,

Falls short of what is there:

Who can describe Infinitude?

Thy glories who declare?

 

Bliss, glory, light and happiness,

And purest love divine,

Are found within thy palaces,

And in thy courts do shine.

 

Rivers of pleasures and of joy,

And living fountains flow:

On ev’ry side the tree of life

For food and health does grow.

 

The angels, eldest sons of light,

Loud hallelujahs sing;

And all the elect multitude

Exalt their Lord and King.

 

Salvation, that delightful theme,

Does all their harps employ;

This fills their souls with ecstasy,

This fills their hearts with joy.

 

O voice of triumph and of joy!

When shall I hear the sound?

When shall I see Jerusalem?

When shall my joys abound?

 

O blessed Jesus, show thy face,

And give me grace and love;

And give me new obedience,

And fix my thoughts above.

 

“Live near to God, and so all things will appear to you little in comparison with eternal realities.”—Robert Murray McCheyne

Part of a poem by Rev. Lachlan MacKenzie of Lochcarron, Scotland (1799–1876), written after the death of a friend.