Christ My Song - 526
The crowd sweeps onward still - The Year's Last Moment
(Horatius Bonar/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
The Year's Last Moment.
1. The crowd sweeps onward still:
and we with it move on,
part of the ever-rushing multitude;
till the great goal be won,
and for the last time sinks the ever-setting sun. PDF - Midi
2. Another hour has struck,
with solemn note, and slow;
another fragment of time's cliff has rushed
into the vale below;
another of earth's streams this moment ceased to flow.
3. Another lamp of time
has flickered into gloom,
and left us lonelier in our lonely watch,
waiting the light to come;
not into, but beyond, the life-devouring tomb.
4. Another of time's stars
has vanished from the eye;
ah! now the light of the immortal dawn
is coming up the sky,
and quenching, one by one, these midnight gems on high.
5. Another headland turned,
while bends the quivering mast;
another beacon of the lone, lone sea
our vessel has shot past.
The shore, the shore is near! Is that the haven at last?
6. Another bridge of life
has now been crossed: few more
remain for us; another ridge of time
we've reached, from it to explore
the far-outspreading green of the not distant shore.
7. Another pillar fallen
in Time's old temple! See
how fragment upon fragment darkly lies;
and hear how heavily
the echoes wind along by the slow-swelling sea!
8. Another song has closed,
a true but varied strain,
and the deep turret-chime I hear afar
has echoed out Amen,
swelling the long-drawn fall of the well-known refrain.
9. Oh, well for us to watch!
Our night will soon be o'er;
the day of mortal doom approaches fast,
the Judge is at the door;
awake! arise, my soul, and sleep thy sleep no more!
Horatius Bonar, The Song of the New Creation, 1872, 29-31.