1 Silent, like men in solemn haste,
Girt as wayfarers of the waste,
We pass out at the world’s wide gate,
Turning our back on all its state;
We press along the narrow road
That leads to life, to bliss, to God.
2 We cannot and we would not stay;
We dread the snares that throng the way,
We fling aside the weight and sin,
Resolved the victory to win;
We know the peril, but our eyes
Rest on the splendor of the prize.
3 No idling now, no wasteful sleep,
From Christian toil our limbs to keep;
No shrinking from the desperate fight
No thought of yielding or of flight,
No love of present gain or ease,
No seeking man nor self to please.
4 No sorrow for the loss of fame,
No dread of scandal on our name;
No terror for the world’s sharp scorn,
No wish that taunting to return;
No hatred can our hatred move,
And enmity but kindles love.
5 No sigh for laughter left behind,
Or pleasures scattered to the wind,
No looking back on Sodom’s plains,
No listening still to Babel’s strains,
No tears for Egypt’s song and smile,
No thirsting for its flowing Nile.
6 No vanity nor folly now;
No fading garland round our brow,
No moody musings in the grove,
No pang of disappointed love,
But with brave heart and steady eye,
We onward march to victory.
7 What though with weariness oppressed?
’Tis but a little, then we rest.
This throbbing heart and burning brain
Will soon be calm and cool again.
Night is far spent and morn is near,
Morn of the cloudless and the clear!
8 ’Tis but a little, and we come
To our reward, our crown, our home!
Another year, it may be less,
And we have crossed the wilderness,
Finished the toil, the rest begun,
The battle fought, the triumph won!
9 We grudge not, then, the toil, the way;
Its ending is the endless day!
We shrink not from these tempests keen,
With little of the calm between;
We welcome each descending sun;
Ere morn, our joy may be begun!
Source: The Cyber Hymnal #12030
Horatius Bonar was born at Edinburgh, in 1808. His education was obtained at the High School, and the University of his native city. He was ordained to the ministry, in 1837, and since then has been pastor at Kelso. In 1843, he joined the Free Church of Scotland. His reputation as a religious writer was first gained on the publication of the "Kelso Tracts," of which he was the author. He has also written many other prose works, some of which have had a very large circulation. Nor is he less favorably known as a religious poet and hymn-writer. The three series of "Hymns of Faith and Hope," have passed through several editions.
--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872… Go to person page >
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