289 There is a land of pure delight

p. 289

Tune: Greensborough, John Mercer 1850

Text: Isaac Watts, 1707

1 There is a land of pure delight,
where saints immortal reign;
infinite day excludes the night,
|: and pleasures banish pain. :|

2 There everlasting spring abides,
and never-withering flowers;
death, like a narrow sea, divides
|: this heavenly land from ours.:|

3 Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
stand dressed in living green;
so to the Jews old Canaan stood,
|: while Jordan rolled between. :|

4 But timorous mortals start and shrink
to cross the narrow sea,
and linger shivering on the brink,
|: and fear to launch away. :|

5 O could we make our doubts remove,
those gloomy doubts that rise,
and see the Canaan that we love
|: with unbeclouded eyes; :|

6 Could we but climb where Moses stood,
and view the landscape o'er,
not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood,
|: should fright us from the shore! :|