At Home In Heaven

Representative Text

1 "Forever with the Lord!"
Amen, so let it be!
Life from the dead is in that word,
'Tis immortality.

2 Here in the body pent
Absent from Him I roam,
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
A days march nearer home.

3 "Forever with the Lord!"
Father if 'tis Thy will,
The promise of that faithful word,
E'en here to me fulfill.

4 So when my latest breath
Shall rend the vail in twain,
By death I shall escape from death,
And life eternal gain.

5 Knowing as I am known,
How shall I love that word?
And oft repeat before the throne,
"Forever with the Lord!"


Source: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal #477

Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Forever with the Lord! Amen, so let it be
Title: At Home In Heaven
Author: James Montgomery (1835)
Meter: 6.6.8.6
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

For ever with the Lord. J. Montgomery. [Heaven anticipated.] First published in The Amethyst, an annual, in 1835, and again in the author's Poet’s Portfolio, in the same year, p. 233, in 22 stanzas of 4 lines, unequally divided into two parts, and headed, "At Home in Heaven, 1 Thess. iv. 17." It was repeated in his Poetical Works, 1841, p. 267; and in his Original Hymns, 1853, p. 231. In this last the second stanza of pt. ii. is omitted. Numerous centos from this hymn are in common use, all except four beginning with stanza i., but varying in length and arrangement. In America especially these centos have attained great popularity. The cento "Beneath the star-lit arch," in Beecher's Plymouth Collection, 1855, is composed of stanzas vii., xii., xiii. and xxi. slightly altered. In Martineau's Hymns, &c, 1840 and 1873, there are also two centos from this hymn: (1) “In darkness as in light"; and (2) "My Father's house on high," and in the Presbyterian Psalms & Hymns for the Worship of God, Richmond, U.S.A., 1867, a third, (3) “My thirsty spirit faints."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Timeline

Media

Baptist Hymnal 1991 #529
  • Bulletin Score (PDF)
  • Full Score (PDF)
  • Bulletin Score (melody only) (PDF)
The Cyber Hymnal #1667
  • Adobe Acrobat image (PDF)
  • Noteworthy Composer score (NWC)
  • XML score (XML)

Instances

Instances (1 - 11 of 11)
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African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal #477

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Baptist Hymnal 1991 #529

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Christian Worship (1993) #213

Church Hymnal, Mennonite #621

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CPWI Hymnal #686

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Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #552

The Baptist Hymnal #666

The Christian Harmony #49

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The Cyber Hymnal #1667

Text

The Song Book of the Salvation Army #877

Welsh and English Hymns and Anthems #49

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