Christ My Song - 415

'Tis only for a season - Only for a season
(Horatius Bonar/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)

Only for a season.

1. 'Tis only for a season;
  how long we cannot tell, –
a quickly passing season;
  and all will then be well. (PDF - Midi)

2. We parted at the river;
  they hasted on before,
and we behind them tarried
  on this tempestuous shore.

3. They went to be with Jesus;
  we could not stay their flight:
they rose above the darkness;
  we still remain in night.

4. They sweetly sleep in Jesus,
  beyond the fear of ill;
theirs is the blessed resting;
  ours is the watching still.

5. The day of meeting cometh,
  the drying up of tears,
the day of glad reunion
  in long eternal years.

6. The parting it was bitter;
  the meeting will be sweet,
the sweeter for the parting,
  when we our loved ones greet.

7. I see the hands that beckon,
  the eager looks of love:
"Oh, come up, come up hither!
  'Tis all so fair above."

8. We could not guess the purpose
  of parting us below,
but what just now we know not
  we shall hereafter know.

Culloden, July 10th, 1874.

Horatius Bonar, "Until the day break", 1890, 70-72.

            PDF - Midi