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O how sweet to know, while we toil below

Representative Text

1 O how sweet to know, while we toil below,
Where no heart from care is free;
That at heaven’s gate many dear ones wait,
Wait to welcome you and me.

Refrain:
In the summer-land above,
All so pure and glad and free;
Many dear ones wait at the pearly gate,
Wait to welcome you and me.

2 All their care is o’er they will sigh no more,
All their tears are wiped away,
And they sing the song of the angel throng,
As they wait for us today. [Refrain]

3 Are we sure that we at the gate will be;
Do we watch and wait and pray?
Shall we meet them there in the morning fair
When the shadows flee away? [Refrain]

Source: New Songs of Praise and Power 1-2-3 Combined #35

Author: James Rowe

Pseudonym: James S. Apple. James Rowe was born in England in 1865. He served four years in the Government Survey Office, Dublin Ireland as a young man. He came to America in 1890 where he worked for ten years for the New York Central & Hudson R.R. Co., then served for twelve years as superintendent of the Mohawk and Hudson River Humane Society. He began writing songs and hymns about 1896 and was a prolific writer of gospel verse with more than 9,000 published hymns, poems, recitations, and other works. Dianne Shapiro, from "The Singers and Their Songs: sketches of living gospel hymn writers" by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (Chicago: The Rodeheaver Company, 1916) Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: O how sweet to know, while we toil below
Author: James Rowe
Refrain First Line: In the summer land above
Copyright: Public Domain

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New Songs of Praise and Power 1-2-3 Combined #35

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