Scripture Verse

The wall…was of jasper: and the city was pure gold. Revelation 21:18

Introduction

portrait
Horace L. Hastings (1831–1899)

Words: Hor­ace L. Hast­ings, 1858.

Music: Eli­hu S. Rice, 1866 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Elihu S. Rice
1827–1912

While sec­re­ta­ry and cho­ris­ter of the Bap­tist Sun­day school at Lo­gans­port, Mr. Rice com­posed the mu­sic of this song and sent it to the Rev. Ro­bert Low­ry, then ed­it­or of the mu­sic­al de­part­ment of the Young Reap­er, a Sun­day school pa­per pub­lished in Phi­la­del­phia. It was ac­cept­ed and first pub­lished in that pe­ri­od­i­cal. Years passed be­fore the com­pos­er real­ized its po­pu­la­ri­ty.

The first no­tice I re­ceived, he says, of the fav­or­a­ble re­cep­tion of ‘Shall we meet’ by the mu­sic­al pub­lic was from Mr. San­key, in a ve­ry kind let­ter wri­tten in Au­gust, 1879, thir­teen years af­ter its first pub­li­ca­tion.

While mu­sic has been writ­ten for those words by a num­ber of mu­sic­al com­pos­ers, I have the sa­tis­fac­tion of know­ing that my mu­sic has re­ceived the choice and ap­pro­val of Mr. Hast­ings, the au­thor of the words.

Sankey, p. 240

Lyrics

Shall we meet beyond the ri­ver,
Where the surg­es cease to roll?
Where in all the bright for­ev­er,
Sorrow ne’er shall press the soul?

Refrain

Shall we meet, shall we meet,
Shall we meet be­yond the ri­ver?
Shall we meet be­yond the ri­ver,
Where the surg­es cease to roll?

Shall we meet in that blest har­bor,
When our stor­my voy­age is o’er?
Shall we meet and cast the an­chor
By the fair, ce­le­s­tial shore?

Refrain

Shall we meet in yon­der ci­ty,
Where the tow­ers or crys­tal shine?
Where the walls are all of jas­per,
Built by work­man­ship di­vine?

Refrain

Shall we meet with Christ our Sav­ior,
When He comes to claim His own?
Shall we know His bless­èd fa­vor,
And sit down up­on His throne?

Refrain