Are You for the Promised Land?

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First in bondage, then in the wilderness

Author: George F. Root
Tune: [First in bondage, then in the wilderness]
Published in 2 hymnals

Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 First in bondage, then in the wilderness,
Israel journeyed to the Promised Land,
And tho’ long in grief and bitterness,
They were guided by a Father’s hand.
When they cried, then he delivered them;
When they strayed, then they felt his hand;
For in all their life in the wilderness,
There were longing for the Promised Land.

2 Hard the bondage, dreary the wilderness,
Long the journey to the Promised Land;
Oft repining, oft in weariness,
Still protected by a Father’s hand.
When they cried, then he delivered them;
When they strayed, then they felt his hand;
For in all their life in the wilderness,
There were longing for the Promised Land.

3 Friends in bondage, friends in wilderness,
Do you wish to reach the Promised Land?
Christ, in love and wondrous tenderness,
Waits to guide you by his mighty hand.
When you cry, he will deliver you,
When you stray, you will feel his hand;
If in bondage or in the wilderness,
You are longing for the Promised Land.

Source: Triumphant Songs No.1 #82

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Author: George F. Root

Root, George F., MUS. DOC, born in Sheffield, Berkshire County, Mass., Aug. 30, 1820. He is much more widely known as a composer of popular music than as a hymn writer. Four of his hymns are in I. D. Sankey's Sacred Songs & Solos, 1878. Nos. 16, 100, 293, and 297. A sympathetic biographical sketch, with portrait, is in The Tonic Sol-Fa Reporter, Sep. 1886. He died Aug. 6, 1895. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)… Go to person page >

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