On our span-long pilgrimage

On our span-long pilgrimage

Author: James Montgomery
Published in 1 hymnal

Representative Text

On our span-long pilgrimage,
Youth, maturity, old age,
What is life?--a passing breath;
Time?--a step from birth to death,

219
On that step, that breath, that span,
Hang the destinies of man;
Not on this poor earth alone,
But through worlds unseen, unknown.

Here a paradise of bliss,
There a bottomless abyss,
At the saint's or sinner's feet,
Fraught with joys or terrors meet.

While we walk by faith below,
Grace direct the way we go,
Through thy gloom, Gethsemane!
O'er thy height, sad Calvary!

Thus in travelling from afar,
Be Christ's cross our leading star,
And His garden-grave our rest,
When life's sun goes down the west.

There in hope our dust be found,
When the years have fill'd their round,
Sown in weakness, raised with power,
In the new creation's hour.

Sacred Poems and Hymns

Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: On our span-long pilgrimage
Author: James Montgomery
Meter: 7.7.7.7
Language: English

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Text

Sacred Poems and Hymns #219

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