That Beautiful City

I know that afar in God's boundless realm

Author: Lanta Wilson Smith
Tune: [I know that afar in God's boundless realm]
Published in 4 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, Noteworthy Composer
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 I know that afar in God’s boundless realm,
Perhaps ‘mid the starry spaces,
Lies the promised home of the saints redeemed,
Replete with celestial graces;
In dreams I have walked on the streets of gold,
As I sought for my own fair dwelling,
And voices I knew and loved of old,
I’ve heard in the music swelling.

Refrain:
That beautiful city is home to me,
Each day it is growing dearer;
And voices that call from beyond the sea
Are drawing me nearer and nearer.

2 That beautiful city with jasper walls,
Ne’er closes its pearly portals,
And the healing pow’r of its holy Light
Sweeps over the blest immortals;
There sorrow and tears shall be wiped away,
In the dawn of an endless morning,
Our triumphs of faith like stars shall shining—
Bright crowns for the soul’s adorning. [Refrain]

3 The longings of life shall be satisfied,
The fetters of earth be broken,
And the rods imprisoned within the soul,
With rapture shall then be spoken;
The music that sorrow hath hushed awhile,
And the silence of life’s sad story,
Shall leap into songs of perfect joy,
Attuned to eternal glory. [Refrain]

Source: The Finest of the Wheat No. 3 #192

Author: Lanta Wilson Smith

Lanta Wilson Smith was born July 19, 1856 at Castine, Maine, and died October 19, 1939 at Taunton, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of a Methodist minister, William J. Wilson, and his wife Sedelia Follett. Her father belonged to the Maine, and later the East Maine Conferences from 1846 until 1866, when he with his family traveled in a covered wagon to the west, where he served as minister in Nebraska and Dakota. Later he returned to New England and founded out his sixty-four years in the ministry at an appointment in Hingham, Massachusetts. From her early childhood Lanta sang and played the organ in church and Sunday school wherever her father was located. When seventeen she attended Bucksport Seminary, Maine, where she received som… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: I know that afar in God's boundless realm
Title: That Beautiful City
Author: Lanta Wilson Smith
Language: English
Refrain First Line: That beautiful city is home to me
Copyright: Public Domain

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The Cyber Hymnal #11587

Include 3 pre-1979 instances
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