The Golden City

Representative Text

1 Sing we of the Golden City,
Pictured in the legends old:
Everlasting light shines o’er it,
Wondrous things of it are told.
Only righteous men and women
Dwell within its gleaming walls,
Wrong is banished from its borders,
Justice reigns through all its halls.

2 We are builders of that City,
All our joys and all our groans
Help to rear its shining ramparts;
All our lives are building-stones.
For that City we must labor,
For its sake bear pain and grief;
In it find the end of living
And the anchor of belief.

3 And the work that we have builded,
Oft with bleeding hands, and tears,
Oft in error, oft in anguish,
Will not perish with our years.
It will last, and shine transfigured,
In the final reign of right;
It will pass into the splendors
Of the City of the Light.

Source: Worship and Song. (Rev. ed.) #211

Author: Felix Adler

Adler, Felix, Ph.D. Born in Germany in 1851; taken to New York in 1857; graduated at Columbia College 1870; and Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature at Cornell University, 1874-76. He published in 1877 Creed and Deed. His hymn, "Sing we of the golden city" (City of our Hopes) is in The Pilgrim Hymnal, 1904. Sometimes given as "Have you heard of the golden city?" --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)  Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Sing we of the golden city
Title: The Golden City
Author: Felix Adler
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Tune

STUTTGART

STUTTGART was included in Psalmodia Sacra (1715), one of the most significant hymnals of the early sixteenth century [sic: eighteenth century]. Christian F. Witt (b. Altenburg, Germany, e. 1660; d. Altenburg, 1716) was an editor and compiler of that collection; about 100 (of the 774) tunes in that c…

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AUSTRIAN HYMN


HUNTINGTON (Conant)


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Instances

Instances (1 - 19 of 19)
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Songs for the Chapel #210

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The Fellowship Hymn Book #2

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The Hymnal #205

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The Pilgrim Hymnal #401

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The Pilgrim Hymnal #528

The Saints' Hymnal #d327

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The School Hymnal #215

Unity Hymns and Chorals. Rev and enl. with Service Elements #d252

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Worship and Song #211

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Worship and Song Edition B #ad218

TextAudioPage Scan

Worship and Song. (Rev. ed.) #211

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Worship Song #793

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