Bible Songs — Special Selections

Nearer Home

O'er the hill the sun is setting,

No. 1398
Tune NEARER HOME.
Words Anon.
Music Jas. McGranahan.
Key G major
Singing key F major
Time 3/4 (stanza), 4/4 (chorus)
4 stanzas

Words

O'er the hill the sun is setting,And the eve is drawing on;Slowly drops the gentle twilight,For another day is gone.Gone for aye, its race is over,Soon the darker shades will come;Still 'tis sweet to know at even,We are one day nearer home.

Chorus.

Nearer home, nearer home,Nearer to our home on high,To the green fields and the fountainsOf the land beyond the sky.

One day nearer, sings the sailor,As he glides the waters o'er,While the light is softly dying,On his distant native shore.Thus the Christian on Life's ocean,As his light boat cuts the foam,In the evening cries with rapture,"I am one day nearer home!" l"

Worn and weary, oft the pilgrimHails the setting of the sun;For the goal is one day nearer,And his journey nearer done.Thus we feel, when o'er Life's desert,Heart and sandal-worn we roam;As the twilight gathers o'er us,We are one day nearer home.

Nearer home! yes, one day nearerTo our Father's house on high,—To the green fields and the fountains,Of the land beyond the sky;For the heavens grow brighter o'er us,And the lamps hang in the dome,And our tents are pitched still closer,For we're one day nearer home.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: hymn number «1398» (large, left), title «NEARER HOME.» centred (condensed capitals and small capitals, «Nearer Home.»); on the next line «ANON.» at the left (words), the epigraph «"For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.—Rom. 13 : 11.» in the centre (old-style figures; an opening double quote and NO closing one — kept as printed) and «JAS. MCGRANAHAN.» at the right (music, capitals and small capitals). No meter, no tune name other than the title, no reference line, no running head. All four stanzas are interlinear, numbered «1.»–«4.», between the staves of systems 1–3; each stanza has eight verse lines, given here one verse line per line (the printed lines carry three, three and two verse lines). Words set unbroken under two notes and words closed up for want of room («singsthesail-or», «ourtents», «feel,when») are written as words. Stanza 1: the apostrophe of «'tis» is set high and away from the word. Stanza 2, last line: the print (this scan) has «home l"» — a plain stroke «l» where «!» is meant (stanza 4 has a true «home!») — kept as printed. Stanza 4, line 2 ends «high,—». «CHORUS.» (bold capitals) stands over the middle of system 3, after a heavy bar and the change to 4/4; the chorus words are printed once, under systems 3–5, in two lines: the upper line is the soprano's (with leader dots under her held notes); the lower line, shifted under it, is the imitating line of the other voices (tenor and bass, alto and bass, alto and tenor in turn) — it is given below after the chorus, as printed under each system. Under the music, centred: «By permission The John Church Co.»; folio 606. The print sets a thin space before «!», «;» and «:» («home !», «on ;», «13 : 11»); it is closed up here; curly quotes and apostrophes are written straight. Spelling and punctuation are the print's.