1 FAIN would I leave the world below,
Of pain and sin the dark abode,
Where shadowy joy or solid woe
Allures or tears me from my God;
Doubtful and insecure of bliss,
Since faith alone confirms me his.
2 Till then, to sorrow born, I sigh,
And gasp and languish after home;
Upward I send my streaming eye,
Expecting till the Bridegroom come:
Come quickly, Lord! thy own receive;
Now let me see thy face, and live.
3 Absent from thee, my exiled soul
Deep in a fleshly dungeon groans;
Around me clouds of darkness roll,
And labouring silence speaks my moans:
Come quickly, Lord! thy face display,
And look my darkness into day.
4 Sorrow, and sin, and death are o'er,
If thou reverse the creature's doom;
Sad Rachel weeps her loss no more,
If thou, the God, the Saviour come;
Of thee possessed, in thee we prove
The light, the life, the heaven of love.