I beheld…a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.
Revelation 7:9
Words: Woodbury M. Fernald, in Church Harmonies (Boston, Massachusetts: Universalist Publishing House, 1876), number 519, alt.
Music: Comfort (Harmonies) Church Harmonies, 1876, page 154 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good photo of Fernald (head-and-shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels), would you send us an e-mail?
O God of glory! when with eye uplifted,
Eye of the soul in visioned wonder clear;
And when by Thine eternal Spirit gifted,
What deep revealings
To the soul appear!
Nature recedes; and in th’expanse eternal,
Spreading and opening to my raptured sight,
I see the hosts of God, the heights supernal,
The Church triumphant
Crowned in Heav’n’s own light,
Ah! there are they who, once among the lowly,
Erst trod the paths of patient virtue here;
And there are they who, in Thy presence holy,
Trembled for sin,
But knew no other fear.
Prophets, reformers—they, who God revering,
Battled with hoary wrong and ancient might;
Behold them now in triumph reappearing
On all the hills of
God, in glory bright!
In deepening vision, flames a light before them:
See a long train of martyrs rise to view;
And lo! a central figure bending o’er them,
The dear Redeemer
Crowning them anew.