O sweetly through the gloomy years

O sweetly through the gloomy yearsThat roll their dimming vail between,The promised goodly land appears,Arrayed in never-fading green.And from that peaceful, happy clime,Transporting bursts of song arise,And, rolling through the mists of time,Tell us of joy that never dies.

As voyagers on the stormy deepLook for some bright and sunny bayWhere winds and waves are hushed in sleep,And joy lights up the happy day,So o'er the tossing sea of yearsWe glance the eye and stretch the handWhere, robed in fadeless light, appearsThe border of the shining land.

There angel hosts of glorious ones,With sinless hearts and stainless hands,Call us in glad and loving tones,And bid us welcome to their bands.Hark! how their harps and voices tellThe glories of that radiant strand,And bid us breast the waves that swellBetween us and the shining land.

Ear hath not heard, eye hath not seen,The glories of that home of song;Though stormy billows roll between,I go to join the angel throng.But of the joys beyond the tide,The welcomes on that golden strand,The best shall be from Him who diedTo bring me to the shining land.