Christ My Song - 1019
All gone, all gone! for this life gone - All gone
(Charlotte Elliott/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
All gone.
1. All gone, all gone! for this life gone,
my days of health and strength;
wearied and worthless, glad were I
to welcome home at length:
and yet I'm happier far in truth
than e'er I was in buoyant youth;
for JESUS, thou art more to me
than health and strength and youth could be. PDF - Midi
2. All gone, all gone! for this life gone
dear hopes most fondly nursed, –
they glittered long around my path,
till each bright bubble burst:
I wept! but oh, the blessed despair
has led me heaven's own joys to share;
for JESUS, thou art more to me
than hope's wild dreams fulfilled would be.
3. All gone, all gone! for this life gone
the heart's elastic spring;
of vigour stripped, I shrink aside,
a crushed and useless thing:
yes! this is gone, for thus I prove
far more his patient, pitying love;
and sweeter, safer this to me
than self-reliant strength could be.
4. And going fast, while most are gone,
loved friends of early days;
the world grows poorer year by year, –
I lose, but not replace;
'tis well, I'm cast the more on One –
stars scarce are missed while shines the sun –
and JESUS, thou art more to me
than loved and loving hearts could be.
5. What grace! with thanks I kiss the hand
that gently stripped me bare;
and laid me on thy tender breast
to lose my sorrows there:
'twas bitter when earth's cup was spilled,
but now with thee 'tis over-filled;
and thou, LORD, hast been more to me,
than all earth's brimming cups could be.
6. What grace! to show to one so vile
thy more than mother's care –
and lead, through wreck of earth's poor joys,
thy joys with thee to share;
what grace! that thou to such hast given,
the foretaste now of feast in heaven;
a foretaste even now to me
more than a thousand worlds could be.
Charlotte Elliott, Leaves from the Unpublished Journals, Letters, and Poems of Charlotte Elliott, 192-194.