Christ My Song - 1032
The pilgrim spirit journeys on - An Exile's Hymn
(Charlotte Elliott/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
An Exile's Hymn.
1. The pilgrim spirit journeys on,
"to Canaan's sacred bounds,"
her conflicts, sorrows, joys unknown,
veiled from the world around. PDF - Midi
2. She views earth's loveliest scenes and bowers
still with an exile's eye;
e'en though her path be strewed sith flowers,
she breathes the exile's sigh.
3. The deep strong yearnings of the mind
in silence are suppressed;
on earth she konws they cannot find
development or rest.
4. The dialect the soul employs
is here a stranger tongue,
yet all her griefs, and hopes, and joys
to that alone are strung.
5. But sometimes, lonely though she be,
some kindred friend she meets
who opes, as with a master-key,
thought's unexplored retreats.
6. Then pausing in some tranquil spot,
joys, sorrows, they reveal;
with which a stranger meddleth not,
which only exiles feel!
7. Oh! how their hearts within them burn,
while of their home they speak,
and bright, yet tearful glances turn,
towards the fair land they seek.
8. They part – but only for awhile –
their term of exile o'er,
they soon beneath their Saviour's smile
shall meet, to part no more!
Charlotte Elliott, Leaves from the Unpublished Journals, Letters, and Poems of Charlotte Elliott, 228-229.