Christ My Song - 1264
Homeward bound, the way is dreary
(Thomas Kelly/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
Homeward bound, the way is dreary.
"This is not your rest." (Micah 2,10)
1. Homeward bound, the way is dreary,
through the ocean wide and deep.
Fearful we, and often weary;
watching, too, while others sleep.
But our trouble ends at last;
sweet the thought of evils past. PDF - Midi
2. We have seen the billows swelling
till they seemed to reach the sky.
We have felt our vessel reeling
"to and fro", now low, now high.
But our Lord was always near,
and his presence calmed our fear.
3. We have been in perils many,
passing through the mighty deep.
None have sunk us, nor will any,
for the Lord his own will keep.
Though their way through danger is,
they are safe, for they are his.
4. 'Tis the Lord's, and not our doing,
we have neither pow'r nor skill;
he it is that saves us going
through the deep: he can and will
keep us safe from first to last:
his the future as the past.
5. Kept by him, no harm can reach us;
kept by him, no ill befall;
'tis a truth the past may teach us,
in our trials, great or small.
Still the Lord has been the same;
and "a tow'r of strength" his name.
6. Homeward bound – the thought is cheering;
soon we hope the land to see:
every day the haven nearing,
where at length we hope to be.
When we reach it, then we rest;
and his people then are blessed.
7. Saviour, be thou near us ever;
keep us by thy mighty arm;
never leave us, never, never;
nothing then can do us harm.
Land us on the happy shore,
where thy people weep no more.
Thomas Kelly, Hymns on various passages of Scripture, ca. 1853, Hymn 278.