Hast thou in infant vision seen
The city of our God?
Or on those holy mountains been,
By saints and angels trod?
Or hast thou heard the melody
Which fills the courts above?
Or has thy Saviour shown to thee
The tokens of his love?
If so,—no wonder thou should’st look
So light on all below;—
If thou hast tasted of the brook
Where living waters flow!
No wonder thou with such delight,
Didst view the rising sun:
Then glance on us thine eye so bright,
And flutter to be gone!
If thou hast seen among heaven’s choirs,
The crown that thou shalt wear,
Forgive a parent’s fond desires,
To keep thee longer here.
If thou among earth’s griefs and joys,
Hadst any longer stayed,
With other rude and wicked boys,
Hadst into evil strayed;—
Hadst thou thy Saviour disobey’d,
Who died thy soul to save,
Thy parents’ heads might have been laid,
With sorrow in the grave.
If it be wrong to mourn for thee,
The Lord that wrong forgive,
And grant us grace each day, that we
In him may walk and live.
O could our faith but pierce the gloom
That hovers round our clay,
We might prefer an early tomb,
To one that’s old and grey!
Could we but hear the songs they sing,
Or see the robes they wear,
’Twould give our resolutions wing,
With longings to be there.