Jerusalem, thou city built on high,

Would God I were in thee!

My eager spirit hath so yearned to fly

And bides no more with me.

O’er hill and valley mounting

High, high o’er fields and wastes,

O’er all, all worthless counting,

Afar from earth it hastes.

O lovely day, O hour more lovely still,

When wilt thou be revealed,

When blissfully, my voice with joy athrill,

My soul to God I yield,

His pledge ordained, unfailing

In His all-faithful hand,

That haven waits my hailing

In yonder Fatherland?

’Twill mount in e’en the twinkling of an eye

Beyond the firmament,

So wondrously, so gently laying by

Its outworn earthly tent;

Midst chariots ascending

While bright angelic bands,

Around it safe attending,

Will bear it in their hands.

All hail to thee, O glorious city, now!

Lift up thy gates of grace

How long the time I yearned for thee, and how,

Before I reached this place

From yonder life of grieving,

Of vanity and strife,

From God at length receiving

The heritage of life.

What folk is this now drawing near to me,

This throng of worthies blest?

These, one time of th’elect on earth, I see;

The noblest crown and best

Which Christ, with grace compelling,

Sent me in other years

When still far distant dwelling

In mine own land of tears.

Lo, patriarchs renowned and prophets great

And gathered saintly folk,

Who while on earth endured the tyrant’s hate

And wore the Savior’s yoke!

But soaring now in freedom,

With honor clothed upon,

Midst radiant light I see them,

And shining like the sun.

Then when at length I enter in a thrill

That Paradise of God,

My every sense with rapturous joy will fill,

My mouth with praise and laud.

Hosannas there ascending

Make holy minstrelsy,

With Alleluiahs blending

For all eternity.

With instruments and with a joyful noise

Are choirs unnumbered singing,

Till by the sound and shoutings set apoise

The courts of joy are ringing.

With ten ten-thousand voices

And tens of thousands more,

The heavenly host rejoices

As ever from of yore.