Scripture Verse

I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better. Philippians 1:23

Introduction

portrait
Nahum Mitchell (1769–1853)

Words: Phi­lip Dodd­ridge (1702–1751). Pub­lished post­hu­mous­ly in Hymns Found­ed on Va­ri­ous Texts in the Ho­ly Scrip­tures, by Job Or­ton (Shrop­shire, Eng­land: Jo­shua Ed­dowes & John Cot­ton, 1755), num­ber 295: The hap­pi­ness of de­part­ing, and be­ing with Christ.

Music: Hea­ven­ly Flight Na­hum Mitch­ell, in the Bridge­wa­ter Col­lect­ion, fourth edi­tion, by Mitch­ell, Ben­ja­min Holt, & Bar­tho­lo­mew Brown, 1816 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Philip Doddridge
(1702–1751)

Lyrics

While on the verge of life I stand,
And view the scene on ei­ther hand,
My spir­it strug­gles with my clay,
And longs to wing its flight away.

Where Je­sus dwells my soul would be,
And faints my much loved Lord to see:
Earth, twine no more about my heart,
For ’tis far bet­ter to de­part.

Come, ye an­gel­ic en­voys, come,
And lead the will­ing pil­grim home!
Ye know the way to Je­sus’ throne—
Source of my joys and of your own.

That bliss­ful int­er­view, how sweet,
To fall trans­port­ed at His feet:
Raised in His arms to view His face,
Thro’ the full beam­ings of His grace.

To see Heav’n’s shin­ing cour­ti­ers round,
Each with im­mor­tal glo­ries crowned!
And, while His form in each I trace,
Beloved, and lov­ing all t’em­brace!

As with a ser­aph’s voice to sing!
To fly as on a che­rub’s wing!
Performing with un­wear­ied hands
A pre­sent Sav­ior’s high com­mands!

Yet with these pros­pects full in sight,
I’ll wait Thy sig­nal for my flight;
For, while Thy ser­vice I pur­sue,
I find my Heav’n be­gun be­low.