Bible Songs — Reward of Saints

Shall We Gather at the River?

No. 1362
Tune SHALL WE GATHER AT THE RIVER?
Words Anon.
Music Robert Lowry, by per.
Key E-flat major
Singing key E♭ major
Time 4/4
4 stanzas

Words

Shall we gather at the riverWhere bright angel-feet have trod;With its crystal tide foreverFlowing by the throne of God?

Chorus.

Yes, we'll gather at the river,The beautiful, the beautiful river;Gather with the saints at the riverThat flows by the throne of God.

On the margin of the river,Washing up its silver spray,We will walk and worship ever,All the happy golden day.

Ere we reach the shining river,Lay we ev'ry burden down;Grace our spirits will deliver,And provide a robe and crown.

Soon we'll reach the shining river,Soon our pilgrimage will cease,Soon our happy hearts will quiverWith the melody of peace.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: hymn number «1362» (large, left), title «SHALL WE GATHER AT THE RIVER?» centred (condensed capitals and small capitals, «Shall We Gather at the River?»); under it, centred, the epigraph «"There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God."—Ps. 46 : 4.» (old-style figures); on the next line «ANON.» at the left (the words) and «ROBERT LOWRY, by per.» at the right (the music; the name in capitals and small capitals, «by per.» in roman). No meter, no tune name other than the title, no reference line, no copyright line (only the folio «572» under the music). All four stanzas are interlinear, numbered «1.»–«4.», between the staves of systems 1–2; each printed line carries two verse lines, given here one verse line per line. «CHORUS.» (bold capitals) stands over system 3; the chorus words fill one line under systems 3–4 and are given once, after stanza 1. Syllable hyphens are joined («gath - er», «riv - er», «mar - gin», «shin - ing», «Wash - ing», «sil - ver», «ev - 'ry», «bur - den», «pil - grim-age», «crys - tal», «for - ev - er», «Flow - ing», «wor - ship», «hap - py», «gold - en», «spir - its», «de - liv - er», «pro - vide», «quiv - er», «mel - o - dy», «beau - ti - ful»); the hyphen of «an - gel - feet» between «gel» and «feet» joins two words and is kept («angel-feet»). The chorus prints «we 'll» with a thin space (closed up: «we'll»). The print sets a thin space before «;» and «?» («trod ;», «down ;», «God ?», «riv - er ;»); it is closed up here; curly quotes and apostrophes are written straight. Spelling and punctuation are the print's (no comma after «river» in stanza 1, line 1; «Ere», «ev'ry»).