On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand

Verse 1

On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye
To Canaan’s fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.

Refrain

We will rest in the fair and happy land,
Just across on the evergreen shore,
Sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, by and by,
And dwell with Jesus evermore.

Verse 2

O’er all those wide-extended plains
Shines one eternal day;
There God the Son forever reigns
And scatters night away.

Verse 3

When shall I reach that happy place,
And be forever blest?
When shall I see my Father’s face,
And in his bosom rest?

Verse 4

Filled with delight, my raptured soul
Would here no longer stay;
Tho’ Jordan’s waves around me roll,
Fearless I’d launch away.

Verse 1

Servant of God, well done!
Thy glorious warfare’s past;
The battle’s fought, the race is won,
And thou art crowned at last;--

Verse 2

Of all thy heart’s desire
Triumphantly possessed;
Lodged by the ministerial choir
In thy Redeemer’s breast.

Verse 3

In condescending love,
Thy ceaseless prayer he heard,
And bade thee suddenly remove
To thy complete reward.

Verse 4

With saints enthroned on high,
Thou dost thy Lord proclaim,
And still to God salvation cry,--
Salvation to the Lamb!

Verse 1

How blest the righteous when he dies!
When sinks a weary soul to rest!
How mildly beam the closing eyes!
How gently heaves the expiring breast!

Verse 2

So fades a summer cloud away;
So sinks the gale when storms are o’er;
So gently shuts the eye of day;
So dies a wave along the shore.

Verse 3

A holy quiet reigns around,
A calm which life nor death destroys;
And naught disturbs that peace profound
Which his unfettered soul enjoys.

Verse 4

Life’s labor done, as sinks the clay,
Light from its load the spirit flies,
While heaven and earth combine to say,
How blest the righteous when he dies!

Verse 1

Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb;
Take this new treasure to thy trust
And give these sacred relics room,
To slumber in the silent dust.

Verse 2

Nor pain, nor grief, nor anxious fear,
Invades thy bounds; no mortal woes
Can reach the peaceful sleeper here,
While angels watch the soft repose.

Verse 3

So Jesus slept; God’s dying Son
Passed through the grave, and blest the bed;
Rest here, blest saint, till from his throne
The morning break, and pierce the shade.

Verse 4

Break from his throne, illustrious morn;
Attend, O earth, his sovereign word;
Restore thy trust; a glorious form
Shall then arise to meet the Lord.

Verse 1

So fades the lovely, blooming flower--
Frail smiling solace of an hour!
So soon our transient comforts fly,
And pleasure only blooms to die.

Verse 2

Is there no kind, no lenient art,
To heal the anguish of the heart?
Spirit of grace! be ever nigh,
Thy comforts are not made to die.

Verse 3

Bid gentle patience smile on pain,
Till dying hope shall live again;
Hope wipes the tear from sorrow’s eye
And faith points upward to the sky.

Verse 1

Why do we mourn departing friends,
Or shake at death’s alarms?
’Tis but the voice that Jesus sends,
To call them to his arms.

Verse 2

Are we not tending upward, too,
As fast as time can move?
Nor would we wish the hours more slow,
To keep us from our love.

Verse 3

Why should we tremble to convey
Their bodies to the tomb?
There the dear flesh of Jesus lay,
And scattered all the gloom.

Verse 4

The graves of all the saints be blessed,
And softened every bed;
Where should the dying members rest,
But with the dying Head?

Verse 5

Thence he arose, ascending high,
And showed our feet the way;
Up to the Lord we, too, shall fly
At the great rising-day.

Verse 6

Then let the last loud trumpet sound,
And bid our kindred rise;
Awake! ye nations under ground;
Ye saints! ascend the skies.

Verse 1

And let this feeble body fail,
And let it faint or die;
My soul shall quit the mournful vale,
And soar to worlds on high--

Verse 2

Shall join the disembodied saints,
And find its long-sought rest;
That only bliss for which it pants,
In the Redeemer’s breast.

Verse 3

In hope of that immortal crown
I now the cross sustain;
And gladly wander up and down,
And smile at toil and pain.

Verse 4

I suffer on my three-score years,
Till my Deliverer come,
And wipes away his servant’s tears,
And takes his exile home.

Verse 1

Peace, be still!
In this night of sorrow bow;
Oh, my heart, contend not thou;
What befalls is God’s own will;
Peace, be still!

Verse 2

Hold thee still!
Tho’ the Father scourge thee sore,
Cling thou to him all the more;
Let him mercy’s work fulfill;
Hold thee still!

Verse 3

Lord, my God!
Give me grace, that I may be
Thy true child, and silently
Own thy scepter and thy rod;
Lord, my God!

Verse 4

Shepherd mine!
From thy fullness give me still
Faith to do and bear thy will
Till the morning light shall shine;
Shepherd mine!

Verse 1

When thou, my righteous Judge, shalt come,
To take thy ransomed people home,
Shall I among them stand?
Shall such a worthless worm as I,
Who sometimes am afraid to die,
Be found at thy right hand?

Verse 2

I love to meet thy people now,
Before thy feet with them to bow,
Though vilest of them all;
But--can I bear the piercing thought?--
What if my name should be left out,
When thou for them shalt call?

Verse 3

O Lord, prevent it by thy grace;
Be thou my only hiding-place,
In this th’ accepted day;
Thy pardoning voice, oh, let me hear,
To still my unbelieving fear,
Nor let me fall, I pray.

Verse 4

And when the final trump shall sound,
Among thy saints let me be found,
To bow before thy face;
Then in triumphant strains I’ll sing,
While heaven’s resounding mansions ring
With praise of sovereign grace.

Verse 1

Lo! on a narrow neck of land,
Between two boundless seas I stand,--
Yet how insensible!
A point of time--a moment’s space--
Removes me to yon heavenly place,
Or shuts me up in hell!

Verse 2

O God! my inmost soul convert,
And deeply on my thoughtless heart
Eternal things impress;
Give me to feel their solemn weight,
And save me, ere it be too late!
Wake me to righteousness.

Verse 3

Be this my one great business here,
With holy trembling, holy fear,
To make my calling sure;
Thine utmost counsel to fulfill,
To suffer all thy righteous will,
And to the end endure!

Verse 4

Then Savior! then my soul receive,
Transported from the earth, to live
And reign with thee above;
Where faith is sweetly lost in sight,
And hope, in full supreme delight,
And everlasting love.

Verse 1

That awful day will surely come,
Th’ appointed hour makes haste,
When I must stand before the Judge
And pass the solemn test.

Verse 2

Thou lovely Chief of all my joys,
Thou Sovereign of my heart,
How could I bear to hear thy voice
Pronounce the sound, “Depart!”

Verse 3

Oh, wretched state of deep despair,
To see my God remove,
And fix my dreadful station where
I must not taste his love!

Verse 4

Oh, tell me that my worthless name
Is graven on thy hands;
Show me some promise in thy book
Where my salvation stands.

Verse 1

And must I be to judgment brought,
And answer in that day,
For every vain and idle thought,
And every word I say?

Verse 2

Yes, every secret of my heart
Shall shortly be made known,
And I receive my just desert
For all that I have done.

Verse 3

How careful then I ought to live!
With what religious fear,
Who such a strict account must give
For my behavior here.

Verse 4

Thou awful Judge of quick and dead,
The watchful power bestow;
So shall I to my ways take heed,
To all I speak or do.

Verse 1

There is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;
Infinite day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.
There everlasting spring abides,
And never-withering flowers;
Death, like a narrow sea, divides,
This heavenly land from ours.

Verse 2

Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
Stand dressed in living green;
So to the Jews old Canaan stood,
While Jordan rolled between.
But timorous mortals start and shrink
To cross this narrow sea,
And linger, shivering on the brink,
And fear to launch away.

Verse 3

O could we make our doubts remove,
Those gloomy doubts that rise,
And see the Canaan that we love,
With unbeclouded eyes--
Could we but climb where Moses stood,
And view the landscape o’er,
Not Jordan’s stream, nor death’s cold flood,
Should fright us from the shore.

Verse 1

When I can read my title clear
To mansions in the skies,
I’ll bid farewell to every fear
And wipe my weeping eyes.
Should earth against my soul engage,
And fiery darts be hurled,
Then I can smile at Satan’s rage.
And face a frowning world.

Verse 2

Let cares like a wild deluge come
Let storms of sorrow fall--
So I but safely reach my home,
My God, my heaven, my all.
There I shall bathe my weary soul
In seas of heavenly rest,
And not a wave of trouble roll
Across my peaceful breast.

Verse 1

On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye
To Canaan’s fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.

Refrain

We will rest in the fair and happy land,
Just across on the evergreen shore,
Sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, by and by,
And dwell with Jesus evermore.

Verse 2

O’er all those wide-extended plains
Shines one eternal day;
There God the Son forever reigns
And scatters night away.

Verse 3

When shall I reach that happy place,
And be forever blest?
When shall I see my Father’s face,
And in his bosom rest?

Verse 4

Filled with delight, my raptured soul
Would here no longer stay;
Tho’ Jordan’s waves around me roll,
Fearless I’d launch away.