The Hope of Heaven

Representative Text

1 How happy every child of grace,
Who knows his sins forgiven!
"This earth," he cries, is not my place,
I seek my place in heaven:
A country far from mortal sight,
Which yet by faith I see,
The land of rest, the saints’ delight,
The heaven prepared for me."

2 O what a blessed hope is ours!
While here on earth we stay:
We more than taste the heavenly powers,
And antedate that day,
We feel the resurrection near,
Our life in Christ concealed,
And with His glorious presence here
Our earthen vessels filled.

AMEN.

Source: The A.M.E. Zion Hymnal: official hymnal of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church #572

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Author: Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepene… Go to person page >

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First Line:	How happy every child of grace, Who knows his sins forgiven!
Title:	The Hope of Heaven
Author:	Charles Wesley (1759)
Meter:	8.6.8.6
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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How happy every child of grace. C. Wesley. [The Hope of Heaven.] Published in his Funeral Hymns, 2nd series, 1759, No. 2, in 8 stanzas of 8 lines, and from thence into the Supplement of the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 1830. G. J. Stevenson has given interesting "Associations" in his Methodist Hymn Book Notes, 1883, setting forth the spiritual help this hymn has been to many. (Original text, Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. vi. p. 216.) Its use with the Methodist bodies in all English-speaking countries is extensive. A cento from this hymn, beginning "A stranger in the world below," is given in H. W. Beecher's Plymouth Collection, 1855, No. 1273. It is composed of stanzas ii. and iii. A second cento in the American Hymns and Songs of Praise, N. Y., 1874, is, "O what a blessed hope is ours" (stanzas vii., viii.).

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Notes

How happy every child of grace. C. Wesley. [The Hope of Heaven.] Published in his Funeral Hymns, 2nd series, 1759, No. 2, in 8 stanzas of 8 lines, and from thence into the Supplement of the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 1830. G. J. Stevenson has given interesting "Associations" in his Methodist Hymn Book Notes, 1883, setting forth the spiritual help this hymn has been to many. (Original text, Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. vi. p. 216.) Its use with the Methodist bodies in all English-speaking countries is extensive. A cento from this hymn, beginning "A stranger in the world below," is given in H. W. Beecher's Plymouth Collection, 1855, No. 1273. It is composed of stanzas ii. and iii. A second cento in the American Hymns and Songs of Praise, N. Y., 1874, is, "O what a blessed hope is ours" (stanzas vii., viii.).

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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