"Forever with the Lord"
                        by James Montgomery, 1771-1854
                                  Text From:
                              THE LUTHERAN HYMNAL
                 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941)



        1. "Forever with the Lord!"
        Amen! so let it be,
        Life from the dead is in that word,
        'Tis immortality.

        2. Here in the body pent,
        Absent from Him, I roam,
        Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
        A day's march nearer home.

        3. My Father's house on high,
        Home of my soul, how near
        At times to faith's foreseeing eye
        Thy golden gates appear!

        4. Ah, then my spirit faints
        To reach the land I love,
        The bright inheritance of saints,
        Jerusalem above!

        5. "Forever with the Lord!"
        O Father, 'tis Thy will.
        The promise of that faithful word
        E'en here to me fulfil.

        6. Be Thou at my right hand,
        Then can I never fail.
        Uphold Thou me, and I shall stand;
        Fight Thou, and I'll prevail.

        7. So when my dying breath
        Shall rend the veil in twain,
        By death I shall escape from death
        And life eternal gain.

        8. Knowing as I am known,
        How shall I love that word
        And oft repeat before the throne,
        "Forever with the Lord!"

        

        Notes:
        Hymn #616 from _The Lutheran Hymnal_
        Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:17
        Author: James Montgomery, 1835, cento, alt.
        Tune: "Schumann"
        1st Published in: _Cantica Laudis_
        Town: Boston, 1850