Christ My Song - 541

Quickly bright life withers - For ever perfect
(Horatius Bonar/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)

For ever perfect.

1. Quickly bright life withers,
  quickly fond ones part;
quickly links are broken,
  binding heart to heart. (PDF - Midi)

2. Slowly grief departeth,
  slowly wounds are healed;
slowly joy returneth,
  slowly blanks are filled.

3. Is there no high region
  where life never dies,
where the love remaineth
  in beloved eyes; –

4. where no stars are falling,
  where no thunders chide,
where no sun is scorching,
  and no streams are dried; –

5. where no winter freezes,
  and no spoiler strips
July's summer roses
  from beloved lips; –

6. where no foreheads wrinkle,
  and no locks are grey;
where we see no dear ones
  dying day by day; –

7. where the deathbed moaning
  is a thing unknown,
where no hands are graving
  names upon the stone; –

8. where the May is endless,
  and the noons all clear;
where the beauty shineth
  round the summer year; –

9. where the love-linked circle
  never snaps in twain,
and the household mirror
  taketh on no stain; –

10. where no picture, hanging
  on ancestral halls,
bright with mellow sweetness,
  long lost love recalls; –

11. where no garden flower-plots
  weed-bewildered stand,
and the untrained roses
  show the broken band?

12. Yes, there comes a region
  where our life shall be
health in all its freshness,
  immortality! –

13. Where the breathing fragrance
  on the holy hills,
tender and untainted,
  heavenly strength distils; –

14. where the grave is rifled
  of its precious store,
and each mound is levelled,
  to be raised no more.

Horatius Bonar, The Song of the New Creation, 1872, 70-72.

            PDF - Midi