Leaving the World

Representative Text

1 Farewell vain World, I must be gone,
I have no Home or Stay in Thee;
I take my Staff, and travel on
Till I a better World can see.

2 Why art thou loth, my Heart, O why,
Dost thou recoil within my Breast?
Grieve not, but say, Farewell, and fly
Unto the Ark, my Dove, there's rest.

3 I came, my Lord, a Pilgrim's Pace;
Weary and weak, I slowly move;
Longing, but yet can't reach the Place,
The gladsome Place of Rest above.

4 I come, my Lord, the Floods here rise;
These troubled Seas Foam nought but mire;
My Dove back to my Bosom flies;
Farewell poor World, Heav'n's my desire.

5 Stay, stay, said Earth, whither fond one,
Here's a fair World, what would'st thou have
Fair World, O no! thy Beauty's gone,
A heav'nly Canaan, Lord, I crave.

6 Thus th' ancient Travellers, thus they,
Weary of Earth, groan'd after Thee,
They are before, I must not stay
Till I both thee and them may see.

7 Put on, my Soul, put on with speed,
Though th' Way be long, the End is sweet;
Once more, poor World, Farewell, indeed!
In leaving thee, my Lord I meet.

Source: A Choice Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs: intended for the edification of sincere Christians of all denominations #XLV

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Author: Samuel Crossman

Crossman, Samuel , B.D. From A. Wood's Athenae Oxonienses (1720, vol. ii. p. 730) we gather all that is known of this hymnwriter. Wood says concerning him:— "Samuel Crossman, Bachelor of Divinity of Cambridge, and Prebendary of Bristol, son of Samuel Crossman, of Bradfield Monachorum, in Suffolk. He hath written and published several things, as The Young Man's Monitor, &c, London, 1664, 8vo., and several sermons, among which are two sermons preached in the Cathedral of Bristol, 30th Jan., 1679, and 30th Jan., 1680, being the days of public humiliation for the execrable murder of King Charles I, printed at London, 1681, &c.; also a sermon preached 23rd April, 1680, in the Cathedral Church of Bristol, before the Gentlemen of the Artill… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Farewell, vain world, I must be gone
Title:	Leaving the World
Author:	Samuel Crossman
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Farewell, poor world, I must be gone. S. Crossman. [Death anticipated.] This is his "Pilgrim's Farewell to the World," in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, in his Young Man's Meditation, or Some few Sacred Poems, &c, 1664 (Sedgwick's reprint [1863], p. 7). The form in which it appeared in the "Sacred Melodies," appended to the Comprehensive edition of Rippon's Selection, 1844, is 4 stanzas of 4 lines and a chorus. Of these, stanza ii. and the chorus are anonymous. In 1855 Mr. Beecher adopted this form of the hymn for his Plymouth Collection, No 1220. In this the first four lines are from Crossman and Rippon, but altered to "Farewell, dear friends, I must be gone!" The second four lines and the chorus are from Rippon; and stanzas iii., iv. are anonymous.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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