If This Were the Only World

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If this were the only world

Author: George F. Root
Tune: [If this were the only world]
Published in 1 hymnal

Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 If this were the only world,
And this were the only life,
Still right would be better far than wrong,
And love would be better than strife.

Refrain:
Then live, oh, live the Christian’s life,
Whatever may betide,
But oh! be sure, be sure there’ll be
Eternity beside.

2 If there were no bliss beyond,
No infinite peace and rest,
The joy of the Christian here on earth,
Would still be the truest and best. [Refrain]

3 If there were no shad’wy vale,
No boding of judgment and doom,
Still sin would embitter all our lives,
And sadden our way to the tomb. [Refrain]

Source: Wondrous Love: A Collection of Songs and Services for Sunday Schools #126

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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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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	If this were the only world
Title:	If This Were the Only World
Author:	George F. Root
Language:	English
Refrain First Line:	Then live, O live, the Christian's life
Copyright:	Public Domain