Bible Songs — Reward of Saints

The Beautiful Hills

O the beautiful hills where the saints will rest,

No. 1366
Tune THE BEAUTIFUL HILLS.
Words J. G. C. Arr.
Music James G. Clark, by per.
Key A-flat major
Singing key A♭ major
Time 4/4
4 stanzas

Words

O the beautiful hills where the saints will rest,When the Lord has made all things new;Where we shall forget, in the smiles of God,The toils we have journeyed through.We have seen those hills in their brightness riseBy the eye of faith below,And we've felt the thrill of immortal eyesIn the night of our darkest woe.

Chorus.

Then sing of the beautiful hills,That rise from the ever green shore;O sing of the beautiful hills,When the weary shall toil no more.

Second line under the end of the first chorus line (tenor and bass, under the held «shore» of soprano and alto):ever green shore;

The cities of yore that were reared in crime,And renowned by the praise of seers,Went down in the tramp of old King Time,To sleep with his grey-haired years;But the beautiful hills rise bright and strongThro' the smoke of old Time's red wars,As on that day when the first deep songRolled up from the morning stars.

We dream of rest on the beautiful hills,Where the trav'ler shall thirst no more;And we hear the hum of a thousand rillsThat wander the green glens o'er.We'll grasp the hands of the martyred ones,Who have braved the world's rude strife,And shout with them o'er the vict'ry gained,And the crown of immortal life.

Our arms are weak, yet we would not flingTo our feet this load of ours;The winds of spring to the valleys sing,And the turf replies with flowers,—And thus we learn on our wintry wayThat our Father rules as he wills;And the breath of God on our souls shall playTill we reach those radiant hills.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: hymn number «1366» (large, left), title «THE BEAUTIFUL HILLS.» centred (condensed capitals and small capitals, «The Beautiful Hills.»); under it, centred, the epigraph «"Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ? or who shall stand in his holy place ?"—Ps. 24 : 3.» (old-style figures); on the next line «J. G. C. ARR.» at the left (the words) and «JAMES G. CLARK, by per.» at the right (the music), capitals and small capitals. No meter, no tune name other than the title, no reference line. The hymn fills p. 576 (five systems) and the first system of p. 577, headed «THE BEAUTIFUL HILLS.—Concluded.». All four stanzas are interlinear, numbered «1.»–«4.» in system 1; each of systems 1–4 carries two verse lines of each stanza, given here one verse line per line (8 lines per stanza; each printed line split at the capital that begins its second verse line). «CHORUS.» (bold capitals) stands over system 5; the chorus words are printed once — «Then sing of the beauti - ful hills, . . That rise from the ever green shore ; . .» on p. 576 and «O sing of the beau-ti - ful hills, . . When the wea-ry shall toil . no more.» on p. 577 — and are sung after every stanza; they are given here once, after stanza 1. Under the end of the first chorus line a second line «ev-er green shore;» is printed for tenor and bass (sung under the held «shore» of soprano and alto); it is given below the chorus. The leader dots of the chorus mark held notes and are not words. Syllable hyphens are joined («for - get», «val-leys», «re - plies», «win - try», «be - low», «im - mor - tal», «dark - est», «morn-ing», «ra-diant», «beau - ti - ful», «re-nowned», «wan - der», «wea-ry»); «grey - haired» is the compound «grey-haired» and keeps its hyphen. «ever green» is two words in the first chorus line (and «ev-er green» in the tenor/bass line), as printed. Under the music: «Copyrighted 1862 by H. M. Higgins.» and the folio «576». A pen annotation of the exemplar above the title is not part of the print and is not transcribed here (see uncertainties.md). The print sets a thin space before «;» and «?» («new ;», «Lord ?», «24 : 3»); it is closed up here; curly quotes and apostrophes are written straight. Spelling («trav'ler», «vict'ry», «Thro'», «o'er», «grey-haired») and punctuation («flowers,—») are the print's.